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Since 2008, Congress has annually appropriated $150 million for Metro's capital improvement budget under the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act. The District, Maryland, and Virginia have matched that, contributing $50 million each. The proposed GOP legislation would mean Metro would start its fiscal year in July with just $75 million in federal money. Lawmakers who represent House districts in the Washington metropolitan area criticized the spending bill when it was unveiled last month. "It really feels like a betrayal of trust," Democratic Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia said then. "It also is a failure to recognize that Metro is...

The fatal shooting of a man by police along Metrorail tracks in the District Thursday night disrupted service for the Orange, Blue and Silver lines. The Potomac Avenue station in Southeast D.C. was also shut down as firefighters removed the body from the tracks about 400 feet east of the station, inside the tunnel.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent Metro three urgent recommendations Wednesday regarding the ventilation of tunnels in response to the fatal smoke incident Jan. 12 in Washington, D.C. In a letter to interim General Manager Jack Requa, NTSB said Metro should assess its ventilation system, write a procedure for tunnel ventilation and establish ongoing ventilation training for control center staff and emergency responders. "Procedures for ventilation of smoke in emergencies can be critical, but they vary across systems, and in some systems are inadequate — as we have found in the present WMATA investigation,” acting NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart said...

The L'Enfant Plaza Metro station has been evacuated due to smoke in the station. Metro says trains are bypassing the station and the station has been temporarily closed. Metro says the source of the smoke has not been determined and it has activated tunnel fans to ventilate the area.

The L'Enfant Plaza Metro station has been evacuated due to smoke in the station. Metro says trains are bypassing the station and the station has been temporarily closed. Metro says the source of the smoke has not been determined and it has activated tunnel fans to ventilate the area.

It turns out I underestimated Metro bureaucrats’ capacity for folly. Two weeks ago, I wrote that the transit system would look silly if it let perish 1,000 flowers planted secretly at the Dupont Circle station by local garden artist Henry Docter, the self-described Phantom Planter. I feared that Metro would merely neglect the flowers. Instead, last Sunday, it sent workmen to yank them out.

A blown transformer at the Van Ness Muni Station in San Francisco caused the shutdown of the Metro subway system Monday evening. Muni officials said the transformer blew at about 6 p.m. as a result of rain damage from Sunday's storm. Subway service had not reopened late Monday, but light-rail vehicles were running on surface lines in the western part of the city. Also, cars on the F-Market line, which runs above ground, had been turned around at 11th Street for a time because of an earlier accident at Market and Dolores streets. The line was reopened at 8:35 p.m....

MARSEILLE, France (JTA) -- A Jewish man was attacked and rendered unconscious in a Paris metro, a local watchdog reported. The 52-year-old victim entered the subway directly from his synagogue but wore no markings that would identify him as Jewish, according to a report on the late September incident by the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, a nonprofit watchdog organization. The incident occurred on the eve of Rosh Hashanah. He may have been targeted because of a Jewish philosophy book by the chief rabbi of Paris that he was reading in the metro when he was attacked,...

At least five people were injured at the L'Enfant Plaza metro station during the Tuesday morning rush hour due to a malfunction on an escalator, officials say. D.C. Fire officials say that three people were taken to area hospitals for treatment after the accident, which happened just after 8:30 a.m. The other two injured people were treated at the station. Metro spokesperson Cathy Asato says that they believe a bag or piece of clothing belonging to a customer caught a side panel of an escalator, detaching it and causing some people to lose their balance. Several pictures and reports on...

High temperatures caused a “heat kink” along a stretch of Metrorail track, officials said, closing a portion of Green Line service throughout the weekend and likely impacting the Monday morning rush hour. Service between Fort Totten and Prince George’s Plaza was suspended Saturday and Sunday while crews repaired the 1,000-foot section of track bent out of shape because of the hot weather. Metro officials announced Sunday night that service had restarted between the two stations, but trains were single-tracking.

Metro officials on Saturday said excessive heat was the probable cause for a train derailment Friday in Prince George’s County. Investigators said a “heat kink” due to extreme high temperatures and direct exposure to sunlight likely caused the rails to expand, resulting in the derailment. The derailment was reported on the inbound stretch of the Green Line near the West Hyattsville Station around 4:45 p.m.

<p>Triple-digit temperatures expected to feel as hot as 110 degrees have prompted excessive heat warnings across the D.C. area on Saturday and could threaten all-time highs.</p> <p>The day continued a trend in the area that hasn’t seen high temperatures lower than 95 degrees since the month began.</p>

Metro proposes to increase bus and rail fares by about 5 percent, raise parking rates and eliminate a controversial rush-hour surcharge this summer to overcome a $116 million shortfall in its next operating budget. Riders who use paper Farecards would face the biggest change. Whether going two stops or 10, they would pay one-way flat fares: $6 during rush hour, $4 in off-peak times. For a group traveling together, hailing a taxi might quickly become more palatable. (snip) Metro officials, however, are promoting the simplification of fares as a plus. The new fare structure would eliminate the “peak-of-the-peak” rate, in which...

“Pointless … like giving caviar to an elephant.” ~ William Faulkner Leave it to Faulkner to create a simile so apt that it reaches across decades to apply, very neatly, to the futility of foisting Mitt Romney upon the Republican Party as its presidential nominee. The image of the elephant is self-evidently appropriate. As for caviar, despite its association with money and privilege, one wonders who actually enjoys its taste. Truth be told, it is over-rated, as most delicacies are. Caviar is a lot like Marmite, only more expensive and lacking its nutritional value. So it is with Romney, moneyed...

For anyone in the DC area who relies on metrorail, a wheel fell off one of the trains on the Orange Line this morning and the entire system is snarled, with people still stuck on the train. Those who made it off are reporting that Metro still made them pay exit fare and somehow find their own alternative transportation.

Here is a series of videos from Metro showing the truck-train accident Tuesday morning (Related news article and photos).

Greanias suspended over accessing 'adult' websites on agency's system The Metropolitan Transit Authority's efforts to rebuild public confidence suffered a setback Thursday with the announcement that President and CEO George Greanias, the public face of the "new Metro," has been suspended for visiting sexually explicit websites using the agency's Internet access. Some observers said Greanias, who has led Metro since last September, has been so good for the agency that the embarrassing bombshell should not prevent his continued leadership...... Metro suspended Greanias for one week without pay effective immediately, a punishment that Chairman Gilbert Garcia said was harsher than typically...

The woman was heading to to Anacostia on Saturday when she noticed a group of people at the L'Enfant Plaza Metro station acting a bit unruly. They were punching the cars, she says, spooking the passengers inside. Through the ruckus, the woman kept moving to catch a green line train. That scene alone might be enough to rattle Metro passengers, but on this night, it was hardly the worst of it. The young woman, who didn’t want her name used in this report, on Sunday described a commuters’ nightmare — a rowdy mess at L'Enfant, followed by a scary confrontation...

When Mitchell Crooks checked out of the county jail last month and checked into a Las Vegas hospital, the 36-year-old videographer knew he had a fight on his hands. His face was bloodied and bruised. His $3,500 camera had been impounded by police, and he faced criminal charges for battery on a police officer. One month later, things have changed for Crooks. The Clark County district attorney's More..office has dropped all charges, and Crooks has retained an attorney of his own. The Metropolitan Police Department has opened an internal investigation into the Las Vegas police officer, Derek Colling, who Crooks...

Federal law enforcement authorities are investigating a nascent plot to carry out a series of terrorist bombings at stations in the Washington Metro system, according to intelligence and law enforcement sources. The investigation is focused on a naturalized U.S. citizen, originally from Pakistan, who became the target of an undercover sting operation, the sources said. An administration official said the man drew the attention of law enforcement officials by seeking to obtain unspecified materials. The planned attack was not imminent, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter remains under investigation.