The entire Washington DC Metro subway will be shut down for at least a day, starting tonight. Our nation’s capital city will have utter transportation chaos. If there’s a more clear signal that America and her infrastructure is crumbling from within, I can’t name it.
My first reaction to this news, oddly, was “Good.” Someone has finally made a bold decision. Exactly the kind of bold decision that might have saved a woman’s life and stopped countless completely unnecessary injuries from a system fire in January last year. For once, let’s stop everything we’re doing, no matter the black eye, and make sure the damn subway is safe.
But my second reaction: Why would this take 15 months? The immediate cause of the shutdown, the Washington Post says, was another fire on Monday that was close enough to the January 2015 incident that it scared Metro officials.
How does killing a woman and injuring dozens more NOT cause that reaction in the first place? I was in DC when that happened, and the incompetence surrounding that incident was both terrifying and infuriating. Why didn’t Metro spend the past 15 months inspecting the reportedly troubled power cables?
Look, everyone in DC knows Metro’s rail lines are comically bad, and the rest of the country doesn’t care much. But it should. DC Metro is a perfect example of what happens when no one wants to pay to fix long term problems correctly; when the worst of catty American politics turns governing into a game of freeze tag; when no one wants to take responsibility for the safety of Americans; and we let a small problem fester until it becomes an incredibly big problem. There’s no point in recounting horror stories here; others can do a fine job of that. (A Twitter account named UnsuckDCMetro has nearly 50,000 followers). But there is a point learning a lesson here.
So, good. Let’s keep everyone off the trains until we know they won’t kill anyone. While we’re at it, let’s pass some emergency measures to help pay for more buses, to make telecommuting easier, and to stop ride-sharing services from gouging (this is no time for surge pricing, Uber). My friends in DC, just pretend it’s a snow day. Stay home. Schools, please close. The world won’t end.
And maybe on this “snow” day, we can all think about making sure what’s happened to DC Metro doesn’t happen to the rest of America.
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