Back to Alllrrriiiggghhhttt

I returned in 2018 to DC from working in Tunisia for 2 ½ years . . . Some readjustment came as a shock, some amusing and some welcomed. And If you can believe it — I missed the Metro. Yep I said it. I missed the (adjective of your choice) Metro. Having little access to public transportation in Tunis, I missed the independence and anonymity of not being a foreigner, not taking a taxi all the time and not standing out.

Now that I have moved to Jordan for work, I can honestly say that yes, I miss WMATA and public transportation once more. But thinking about my fair-weather friend, I have some ideas for WMATA to help them make people love it more. Well, not love it more but maybe like it a bit more.

Back in DC, I noticed the new fandangle video monitors in their 7000 series of metro cars. So Metro was doing a bit of self-promotion — understandable after I missed the multi-year Safe Track closures and headaches and this summer’s closures — by saying they were “Back2Good.” What does that mean, Back2Good? I mean I guess I know as they have improved things, but they are acknowledging that they are far from perfect. And they can’t say Back2Great because that is close to that other saying I don’t think we want to be associated with. And Back2Ok does not leave a rider feeling very confident — don’t you think?

So I propose a new slogan: Back2Allright. Or as we would say in DC — Back2Allllrrriiiiggghhht.

I think we need to show some personality here in DC. We have the SmarTrip Card, which is just nice, functional, plain with no emotions, no feeling, no personality. Other cities, like Boston, has transportation that has personality and fun with their Charlie Card — an homage to the 1948 folk song by the Kingston Trio where Charlie got trapped in MTA since did not have enough fare for the nickel fare increase.

When I think of Back2Allright, I can hear a bit of southern accent in DC coming through with an image of someone nodding to their friend saying, “Yep . . . I am allright — you?”

It was an adjustment moving back to DC and now to Jordan. And I thinking that if the DC Metro can be Back to Allright, I can too.

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