Buried at the bottom of yesterday's WaPo story about the $1.5 billion funding package for Metro passed by the Senate is this juicy tidbit:The bill also includes a provision to improve cellphone coverage in the subway system. Within one year, the 20 busiest underground Metro stations would be required to have cellphone access for all carriers. Currently, only Verizon or Sprint roaming customers can receive signals.The last we heard about plans to build an expanded......

The long-delayed bill which includes a potential $1.5 billion in funding for Metrorail will finally be voted on in the Senate tomorrow, and it is expected to pass. Debate on the floor was officially closed by a 69-17 vote yesterday, and it would appear that the legislation has more than enough votes to make it's way to President Bush's desk. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is probably finding the bill more difficult to roadblock these days,......

Metro brings word that yesterday, the House of Representatives approved an amended version of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 and the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, H.R. 2095. While the bill's main financial purpose is to allocate $13.06 billion in federal funds over the next five years to Amtrak, it also includes $1.5 billion in appropriations for Metro to make capital improvements in the next ten years - vital funds......

On your way home tonight, keep an eye out for changes to how passenger information is displayed on the electronic monitors in Metro stations. From WMATA: The new format will provide customers with specific information they can use to make travel decisions. For example, the monitors will provide information about the time it takes trains to pass through a location where they are sharing a single track, the estimated start time of a shuttle bus......

For those of you headed out of town for the weekend, take note if you plan to drive out the city over the Francis Case Memorial Bridge after 9 p.m. tonight. Just got this from DDOT:The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) is scheduled to install a new overhead sign on Interstate 395, at the Francis Case Memorial Bridge, on Friday, September 19, 2008. All of the work will be conducted overnight, between 9pm and 4am,......

If you aren't getting your fill of commenting on local transit issues through the 16th Street Bus Study or the DC Neighborhood Circulation Study, there's yet more chances to make your voice heard. WMATA announced today that they'll be holding public meetings beginning September 24th regarding possible improvements to 14 bus lines, including the oft-travelled "D" and "2" series of lines. For more information regarding the sessions - or to register your complaints online if......

Virginia Railway Express had its busiest month ever in August, hauling an average load of more than 15,000 people per day. It's both a testament to the metro area's thirst for mass transit and a startling turnaround for an agency that was shedding customers left and right as recently as last year. Heck, the system is even looking into possibly expanding its reach. But there's big trouble rumbling under the surface. According to the VRE's......

Via a reader tip, Fox 5 reports that Greenpeace has taken responsibility for the polar bears that have been mistaken for suspicious packages around town over the last week. Indeed, if you go to the Greenpeace homepage, it turns out that not only was Greenpeace responsible, but they actually did it in collaboration with street artist Mark Jenkins -- so both of our guesses were correct! Greenpeace has unveiled a collaborative art project with well-known......

Flickr user benmiller23 spotted this polar bear installation, which looks very similar to the one that a bomb squad tore apart after shutting down surrounding streets and a Metro station in Columbia Heights today, on the National Mall on Thursday, Sept. 11. It's looking more and more like these bears are part of an elaborate campaign to raise awareness about the plight of polar bears amid global climate change. Another bear, spotted at what......

Metro says the Columbia Heights Metro station reopened at 11:45 a.m., "following a report of a suspicious package located outside the station." No mention of the bear at all. The station was closed for approximately an hour and 40 minutes. NBC4 says a neighborhood resident saw the bear between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. this morning, even though the police weren't called until 10. We've also heard that the bomb squad cut the bear open,......

Via the DCist tipline, we get this image from Irving and 14th Streets of an odd looking bear costume wearing tattered clothing and posed over a trash can. A lot of our readers are telling us this is the reason for the suspicious package alert. "Cops have the street blocked off and are standing around looking at it as of 9:30 am," the tipster wrote. Could this be another Aqua Teen Hunger Force moment?......

A suspicious package found outside the Columbia Heights Metro closed the station at 10:03 a.m. No one is being allowed inside the station, though WMATA says Green and Yellow line trains continue to operate, they just are not stopping at Columbia Heights. Free shuttle buses should be available between the Georgia Ave-Petworth and U St/African-Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo stations.......

We mentioned it earlier this week, but it's worth a reminder: Metro is shutting down the Yellow line rail bridge over the Potomac River this weekend to do track maintenance and conduct an annual bridge inspection. This means that the Yellow line will operate only between Huntington and Arlington Cemetery starting tonight at 10 p.m. through Sunday at midnight. You read that right -- there will be no Yellow line service between the Pentagon and......

Metro is reporting that Judiciary Square station on the Red line is closed as of 11:30 this morning, due to a suspicious package. Trains are running through the station, but no passengers are allowed to enter or exit as investigators look into the situation. Metro is especially security-heavy this week since tomorrow is the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Metro's web site is reporting that the investigation is expected to take 1 to......

According to the Post, Metro finally got its on-time measuring system working in Metrobuses after 35 years. So, that's the positive news. The statistics uncovered, on the other hand, pretty much confirm what everyone already assumes about the buses' ability to stick to a schedule: namely, that they have no such ability. A report to be released on Thursday will show that overall, Metrobuses were on-time (defined as falling somewhere between two minutes early and......

Due to security surrounding the dedication of the new Pentagon Memorial on Thursday morning, all Metrobus service that would usually run through the Pentagon Transit Center will be rerouted to Pentagon City. The Center services a good number of bus routes, so if your commute takes you through Northern Virginia on a bus, we'd recommend looking in to some alternate plans on Thursday. Metrorail service at and through the Pentagon station will not be affected.......

Reader Michael Griffith sends us this picture and a report from his Metro ride this morning, where he encountered the new spring-loaded handles that Metro is currently testing. Older cars have gotten boring (but probably just as effective) vinyl straps, but the stainless steel is the wave of the future! From the looks of it though, they aren't really being used that much...yet. Said Michael:No one was using nor commenting on the handles...I also......

Metro will be using a Sunday schedule for Monday's Labor Day holiday. This means that trains will be running between 7 a.m. and midnight and that parking at most (if not all) Metro lots will be free. Metrobus will also be running on a Sunday schedule. MARC and VRE, as usual, will not be offering service on the holiday. Also, if you're travelling on the Blue and Yellow lines, don't forget that there will be......

Over the last few days, MPD officers have been spotted standing at the corner of 14th and Irving Streets NW ticketing people for jaywalking. We saw them at about 5 p.m. yesterday and received emails saying they were out on Wednesday as well. One bystander said she saw police stop one guy crossing against the light when no cars were around: "he had his headphones on and was crossing the street and the cop chased......

A lot of our commenters expressed skepticism about how effective the city's new bicycle sharing program, SmartBike DC, would really be with only ten stations and 100 bikes. Well WTOP is now reporting that with 450 registered users already signed up to the service, DDOT has declared it a success, and is "fairly sure" the pilot program will expand. Expect to wait on that expansion, though. DDOT says one of the top locations for the......

WMATA has put out its weekend track work alerts. The Red line looks to be the most affected, as switch replacement work at the Friendship Heights station will be underway this weekend. Red Line: Add at least 25 minutes of travel time between Medical Center and Van Ness-UDC due to the switch replacement work going on all weekend at the Friendship Heights station. Inbound and outbound trains will share one track from 9 p.m. tonight......

Metro says riders should expect delays on the Red line tonight in the direction of Shady Grove due to an earlier train malfunction at Forest Glen that has been resolved. No word on what kind of delays we're talking about here, but if you were counting on the Red line to be a snap during rush hour, don't be surprised if it's a bit off the normal schedule.......

If you're a frequent parker in Arlington, you may want to budget in some extra cash for a rate hike at parking meters. According to the Examiner, Arlington County officials are considering making some sweeping changes to the current system, such as extending the metered hours and raising the current flat rate of $1 per hour. Obviously, there's a tough balance to keep here for County officials - on the one hand, the Wilson Boulevard......

After a bit of a wait, District residents can finally sign up for SmartBike DC memberships online. The city's pilot bicycle sharing program is already being used by a small number of beta testers, and $40 annual subscriptions are now for sale, according to DDOT's Manager for Bicycle, Pedestrian, and Transportation Demand Management Programs, Jim Sebastian. It takes at least a couple of weeks to process memberships, so if you sign up today, you can......

Baseball's trading deadline is July 31, but the District's transportation scene experienced it's own version of a pennant race deal yesterday. Now-former head of DDOT Emeka Moneme resigned from his post to take up the Chief Administrative Officer post at Metro. Mayor Fenty can't be too upset at the loss; WMATA is just returning the favor after Fenty plucked current City Administrator Dan Tangherlini from Metro back in November 2006. David Alpert has the first......

AlertDC sent around word just after 11 a.m. that a track circuit malfunction outside the Takoma Metro station is creating long term delays on the Red line in both directions. Trains are sharing the same track between Ft. Totten and Silver Spring. The estimated repair time is 2 hours. This Red line delay comes on the heels of an Examiner story this morning predicting serious evening and weekend delays on the Red line for at......

Metro, you know that we love you, and that sometimes, life isn't fair - after all, you've had kind of a rough year so far, and us transit buffs, we understand that. But you surely can understand that when we start seeing comments like, "I'm planning to go back to car pooling. Really. I'm getting fed up with this," we worry. Because for all your wild successes this year in getting people to the......

WMATA sent out word at about 4:20 p.m. that a Dominion Virginia Power problem is going to affect commuters this evening on the Virginia end of the Orange line. The Dunn-Loring station is without power due to escalating power outages near West Falls Church.Vienna-bound Orange Line trains will operate 12 minutes apart between the West Falls Church-VT/UVA and Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metrorail stations, and every other train will terminate at West Falls Church. Passengers going to Dunn......

We've chronicled photographer harassment in the D.C. area, most recently at Union Station, where amateur photogs have encountered great confusion as to who owns which portions of the station and shops, where those sections end, and what rules apply to photographers in each one. Tomorrow, the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Managment of the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, will try to find answers to those......

WMATA just sent out images of their brand new Metrobuses. The new red and silver color scheme looks pretty sweet. Keep an eye out for one of the 22 new 60-foot articulated buses when they make their debut in August, on lines yet to be announced. The rest of the press release stats are below the jump.......