SHADY GROVE - Sandra Friedman has a bad case of the Red Line blues - a virulent form of the Metro malaise affecting the Washington area.
The Gaithersburg resident has been a faithful rider of the Washington Metro system since the 1970s. At 71, she still hops a Red Line train here each weekday to commute to her job downtown near the Union Station stop.
There was a time when she would have given Metro a grade of B-plus. Now she'd give the system a C-minus.
"It seemed to me that it was much more reliable 10 years ago than it is now," Friedman said as her morning train rolled south toward the city. "We've had so many problems on the Red Line, starting about two years ago."
Since the late 1970s, the Washington Metro has been the crown jewel of the national capital's transportation system and the envy of Baltimore transit advocates. Even now it remains relatively clean and crime-free.
Unlike Baltimore's subway system, it goes a lot of places - 86 stations, including 26 in Maryland. It carries more than 650,000 passengers on a typical day - about 260,000 of them from Maryland, and more than 15,000 of those from metropolitan Baltimore.
But nearly 30 years after its opening, Metro is showing its age. Breakdowns, delays, accidents, crowded cars, parking shortages and out-of-service escalators have taken their toll on the patience of Friedman and other riders.
"I just don't think it's getting better. They just keep increasing the fares, but I don't see better service," said Lydia Smith of Wheaton. "You pay like $3 or $5 to stand up or be packed like sardines."
Metro's woes have prompted a six-year capital improvement plan - Maryland's share of which will cost state taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. But transit advocates say that is not enough. Without additional revenue, they say, the system will continue to deteriorate.
Signs of that decline have been abundant over the past year.
In November, 20 people were injured and Red Line service was curtailed for days after one train rolled backward into another at the Woodley Park station. Metro blamed the accident on operator error.
On several occasions, cracks were discovered in Metro tracks, hampering service while crews repaired the damage. On Friday, Blue Line passengers were delayed after cracks were discovered at two locations in Virginia.
In September, Metro officials reported that the system's rail cars were breaking down at twice the 2001 rate - largely because of deferred maintenance during a budget crunch. August brought a derailment that delayed Red Line service. In March a station fire stranded thousands of commuters.
Richard White, chief executive of the transit system, isn't denying the problems. "Obviously, we know it was a tough year," he said last month.
In addition to a series of system breakdowns, the agency has been buffeted by negative publicity.
Articles in The Washington Post revealed that about half the system's board members seldom ride the Metro. Some arrests of Metro riders for petty infractions have brought complaints that the system's police force is heavy-handed.
Some problems are those that come with popularity. Ridership continues to grow each year, and the system opened three new stations recently.
The worst problems have surfaced on the Red Line, the oldest and busiest segment of the system. On that line, which runs from the Interstate 270 corridor through downtown and Silver Spring to Glenmont, deteriorating track has led to accidents and service interruptions.
Problems are evident on other lines as well.
Dave Spevack, a retiree and frequent Metro user from Laurel, pointed out the discolored walls of the Mount Vernon station on the Green Line, the line used by many Baltimore-area residents who pick up trains at Greenbelt to commute into Washington.
"See the marks on the wall. ... Water is an extreme problem," he said. "That's what happens when the pumps fail."
When Metro pumps fail in Washington, it's a problem all over Maryland. That's because the state - not just the Washington suburban counties - is a partner in the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority, which runs the capital region's Metro and bus systems.
Under the authority's funding formula, Maryland is paying $207 million toward the system's $978 million operating budget this year. The District pays $202 million, Northern Virginia localities $134 million, and Metro riders contribute the rest.
Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said that in addition to the operating money, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has pledged $329 million toward Maryland's share of a six-year, $1.5 billion capital rehabilitation program known as Metro Matters. The District and Northern Virginia have also anted up, but the transportation authority is awaiting a decision from the federal government on how much it will contribute to a system that transports more than 300,000 of its workers on a typical weekday.
