Additional improvements to be made for bus shelter and station maps

SANTA BARBARA, CA (22 May, 2008)

In an ongoing initiative to improve communications with customers, particularly during emergencies, Metro will create site-specific emergency evacuation maps that customers can take with them if they have to evacuate a rail station or choose to find an alternate route during a lengthy service disruption.

The maps will be customized for each of Metrorail’s 117 station mezzanines and will list all bus service available near the station and provide walking directions to the closest Metrorail station along with the distance and estimated walking time.

If an incident closes or severely impacts a Metrorail station, station managers or other Metro personnel responding to the scene can distribute the maps as riders looking for alternate routes leave the station. For example, Metro Center would have three different maps, customized for each of the three mezzanines. The map will show the location of the station exit with a “You Are Here” icon and also pinpoint all bus stops in the immediate area and list all of the bus routes making those stops. It also will list the nearby Metrorail stations, Federal Triangle, Gallery Pl-Chinatown and McPherson Square, identify the rail lines that serve each of the stations, and provide walking directions to the station with the distance and estimated walking time listed.

Each station mezzanine initially will receive 5,000 copies of the individualized maps, which will be printed on standard 8.5 by 11-inch paper. Once the inventory gets low, personnel will be able to make photocopies. The maps will start to be available by the end of June. The busy downtown stations will be among the first Metrorail stations to receive the maps.

The emergency evacuation maps are part of a broader program to improve maps in the Metrorail and Metrobus system, including the customized maps found in bus shelters and on Metrorail mezzanines.

Metro’s Board of Directors today approved a measure to modify the existing contract with CHK America to update, repair and upgrade the existing bus shelter maps. The modification includes providing up to 633 additional maps for new bus shelters being installed by the District of Columbia, replacing and updating neighborhood maps in Metrorail stations to include adjacent bus service information, and repair and upgrade existing bus maps to reflect recent bus route changes, including the new bus service to the recently opened National Harbor and Nationals Park.

The original program to develop a comprehensive plan to improve passenger information about bus and rail service, including bus-to-rail and rail-to-bus transfers, was approved by the Board of Directors in 2004. CHK America has been responsible for creating, installing and updating 480 site-specific bus maps - at 349 Metro-owned bus shelters, 117 mezzanines and 14 mini-mezzanines. The maps are customized and highlight bus routes that serve a particular Metrorail station or bus stop. They also include a sub-regional bus system map, direction of bus service at the station or bus stop, and a bus stop location map.