Goal 2: Meet or Exceed Customer Expectations by Consistently Delivering Quality Service
Metro will provide reliable, 
accessible, clean and customer-focused transit service.
Metro strives to be the region’s preferred ride. That means that Metro will provide on-time service that gets customers where they want to go, when they want to get there. From the moment customers arrive in a station or board a bus or Access vehicle, Metro will strive to make travel safe, reliable, clean, comfortable and affordable. Trip information will be easy to hear and simple to obtain with support from the latest user-friendly technology and responsive staff.
Over the last two years, Metro has improved on-time performance and customer service so today:
- Metrorail continues to make improvements to exceed ninety percent on-time reliability, and MetroBus continues to improve service despite increasing traffic congestion; and
- Over eighty percent of both bus and rail customers surveyed are ‘highly satisfied’ with service.
Focus on the customer
Metro will focus on the needs of Metro’s customer at all stages of a trip, and optimize its customer-facing employee approach.
Priority strategic actions underway include:
- Maintain clean, well-lit, comfortable, and accessible stations, stops, and vehicles
- Monitor Metro’s progress and strive to continually improve using mystery shoppers and satisfaction surveys and other venues
- Establish a continual learning culture for customer service
New priority strategic actions include:
- Re-invent customer-facing employee roles and recruiting/hiring protocols
- Focus on recruiting and hiring as a means to achieve better customer-facing employee roles
- Develop and implement new feedback systems for customers to provide input and track resolution of complaints and issues
- Develop new opportunities to reach our customers where they live, work and play
Make it easy and intuitive to plan, pay, and ride
Metro will provide customers with accurate and timely information to navigate the region ’s transit network and plan their trip, including real-time information on arrivals and departures, or delays and incidents. Adopting new technologies and policies will help our customers experience an easy, intuitive and seamless trip.
Priority strategic actions underway include:
- Provide customers with accurate, clear and timely service information
- Provide readily-understandable and useful real-time information in stations, stops, and on vehicles
- Invest in the technology infrastructure to complete the journey to an intuitive, easy to use system
- Invest in communications tools and technologies to provide the next generation of information services
New priority strategic actions include:
- Provide transit riders with a regional trip planning system that works for all systems and provides real-time information in vehicles, in stations, at bus stops, and on any device
- Commit to a customer education effort to smooth the transition to an easy and intuitive system
Fix it first and fast
Metro’s results focused maintenance approach is critical to attaining a state of good repair and keeping services running reliably. Metro will collect and utilize data on the performance of the system in order to deploy resources, proactively.
Priority strategic actions underway include:
- Conduct regular maintenance to keep assets operating reliably
- Perform vehicle mid-life overhauls, garage/yard rehabilitations and station upgrades
- Monitor reliability of assets, isolate root causes of disruptions and engineer corrective actions
- Aggressively rehabilitate segments of the rail system and bus facilities
Be on-time
Metro is dedicated to delivering service on time. Metro will continue to adjust service delivery to improve reliability, reduce crowding, and better serve travel markets.
Priority strategic actions underway include:
- Develop supervisory techniques to make service changes in real time
- Establish and perform to regional service standards for bus and rail
- Target service improvements and bus priority measures along Metrobus corridors
- Analyze options to increase performance or reallocate resources
- Adhere to established MetroAccess performance standards, and continue to identify opportunities for schedule optimization
- Modify schedules and routes to reflect changing traffic, demand, and service standard thresholds
- Ensure a seamless fare system among all modes and services
For more information:
Download both the full Momentum plan and the Executive Summary.
Regional support is important to making Momentum a reality! A number of regional stakeholders have already endorsed Momentum. Please sign on and add your name to endorse Momentum and send the message that public transit is vital to the National Capital Region.
Let’s talk about Brake Shoes and/or pads…. The quality of the shoes are possibly poor. or the previous person in the operations department or purchasing chose to buy less expensive or inferior product. Nonetheless, there is a problem in the Bethesda Station in Maryland. The dust that is everywhere around the station this includes all over the walls including the bus rout brochures and the pedestrian railings and benches. When I was in the station I found that there was a haze in the air, a halo, could be seen around the lights in the station. I talked to the station manager and he agreed with me. I was also wondering if he ever considered wearing a dust mask to prevent the inhalation of it. He did, but it may heighten the concern of the passengers to think that there’s a problem. I could see even on the inside of the Station Managers booth that the air vent was covered with a black suit. I suppose that’s just one of the hazards that comes with the job. Well- I don’t think it should be, I think it would be good to set a high level of cleanliness for the station and that it is an investment that would be seen as cost saving for the future. It would also create jobs, I think it should be brought up at the next Metro Board meeting, I don’t know when they have them, but maybe someone will email me the date or see this email and put this concern on the agenda.
1. The quality of the Brake Pads on the trains, what are they? give me the brand make and model and do they need to be upgraded for better quality (show me the numbers- quality vs. price + time)?
2. Consider the current stations dust (When can it be cleaned?, how many labor hours and equipment will be needed?)
3. Fix the source of the poor air quality and dust before cleaning the station and the tunnels. (Purchase Quality Brake Pads)
◾The Result: better air quality of the station manager and the customers. Plus less station surface dust and dust on riders clothing.
@Newell
Hi, Newell.
Thanks for your comment. I am curious why you think this is an issue with brake pads? I would assume if it were such an issue it would be a problem at other stations as well. Regardless of the cause, it should be investigated.
The best way to report an issue is to submit it to our customer service comment form on our website, wmata.com: https://www.wmata.com/about_metro/contact_us/ridercomment.cfm