January 5, 2009
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WMATA Faces Looming Inauguration Challenges
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is gearing up for something it’s never experienced before: moving an expected 1.5 million people on Inauguration Day, which is nearly twice its previous ridership record.
And WMATA is not just focusing on the events of Jan. 20. The opening ceremonies on Sunday, Jan. 18, are expected to draw 500,000 people, and Jan. 19, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, will have numerous events as well.
Add to that bridges and road closures, and a recognition that the city will be cut in half at Pennsylvania Avenue because that is the parade route. This means that bus riders will need to understand that many of WMATA’s regular bus routes will hit a dead end and have to detour, making any trip longer.
 Some of the 1.5 million people coming into the city will arrive on charter buses. WMATA will allow parking for those buses at just six of its lots, and any charter bus must register and pay in advance. No early registration and payment? Expect to be turned away. This step, said Lisa Farbstein, WMATA spokesperson, “is to allow our bread-and-butter regular customers to be able to park in our lots.” The capacity is 60,000 cars; on Jan. 20, 40,000 spaces will be available.
Even so, the word to regular commuters is to allow an extra hour travel time to get to work. And for the comfort of all riders, especially since there will be long waits for trains, WMATA will place 150 port-a-johns at stations where they own the immediate property surrounding the entrance, which generally means stations with big parking lots.
“One of the things we’re trying to do—because there will be so many people from outside the area not familiar with our system—is encourage them to have their fare media purchased in advance of their arrival,” Farbstein said. Whether riders choose a commemorative SmarTrip card, farecard, or one-day pass, they can buy them in advance and have them in hand for their travel around town.
WMATA has compiled a listserve that will issue special inauguration alerts, such as the fact that people can now order their commemorative fare passes online. It will cease operation as soon as the inauguration is over.
Expect Long Waits—or Walk
WMATA cannot bring in extra trains from other systems because its trains are custom built. What the agency can do, however, is run trains as often as possible, which means rush-hour service for 17 consecutive hours, from 4 a.m. to 2 a.m. on Inauguration Day. Still, the maximum number of people the system can move in an hour is 120,000.
“So we’re telling people from the start,” said Farbstein, “there may be lines a few hours long after the inauguration swearing-in, if all of a sudden a few million people stand up and say—let’s go!”
For the first time in its history, WMATA is encouraging people who live up to two miles away to consider walking. It is printing Metro guides that show the downtown Mall as the center of the map, with rings extending outward in half-mile increments.
Crowd Control and Crowding
To help maintain safety, WMATA will bring in an additional 200 transit police officers from other systems. These individuals “are experts in the transit environment. They understand crowd control on a platform, why that’s critical and why that’s a safety issue,” said Farbstein.
Most of the people taking Metro will likely gather on the Mall, where security will be very tight; items such as backpacks and strollers will not be allowed, but the rules that WMATA will enforce have to do strictly with space. The system will not allow bicycles on board trains, but bikes can go on buses if there is room on the racks. Riders cannot bring signs on board larger than 18 inches square—“Either fold it up or roll it up,” advised Farbstein—and the signs must not have large poles. So, from planning to parking, from walking to waiting, WMATA has made every effort to cover every possible contingency—to enable however many people come to town to witness this historic event.
As Farbstein said: “There’s not one office in the transit authority that isn’t somehow involved in planning for this weekend of activities.”
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