Metro's Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Week

WASHINGTON, DC -- Metro's chronic smoke and fire problems and its burdensome year-long SafeTrack plan haven't exactly been a public relations victory for WMATA, but one might argue that a recent seven-day period is the worst yet in 2016 -- and perhaps in many years.

It all started with the July 29 derailment of a Silver Line train near East Falls Church Metro station. One person was injured in the derailment and the station was shut down through the weekend, forcing riders to take a shuttle to get from Ballston to points west. Metro has since blamed that derailment on the deterioration of track ties, and reports have emerged suggesting that Metro leadership may be pushing for heads to roll in the incident.

One of those heads did roll last week in connection with an entirely different incident. An operator was fired for allegedly running a red light at the Reagan National Airport station in Arlington. The incident happened July 27, and Metro determined that the cause was train operator error.

But none of those incidents can compare, at least in terms of raw shock value, to the report Aug. 3 that a Metro Transit Police officer had been arrested after he allegedly attempted to send money to ISIS. Police arrested 36-year-old Nicholas Young from Fairfax, who had served with the agency since 2003, claiming that he had been communicating with an FBI agent thinking that he was talking to ISIS.

But the problems haven't just been about safety and Metro personnel. There's also been lots of complaints about the rider experience itself -- and it's not just due to delays from safety work and the "Surges." Riders also continue to complain about the "hot cars" problem, and Metro says they're trying to figure out why so many of their rail cars have broken air conditioning systems, forcing riders to sweat on their commute.

Metro is just about to begin Surge No. 7, and with eight more to go after that and no signs that Metro's troubles are going away anytime soon, more bad news could spell some big changes at WMATA.

Image via WMATA