WASHINGTON -- After a rough day that saw three derailments, Metro celebrated its 42nd birthday by asking riders to become Metro fans.
The transit agency has created a Facebook page as a more casual way of connecting with commuters, so even if your ride was a lot longer than you planned Thursday, Metro wants you to be their friend.
The page includes upcoming events like track work and has RSS feeds showing real-time bus and rail service disruptions.
Metro also wants its fans to weigh in on the discussion board. The first discussion is seeking ideas for Metro to raise more money, hopefully helping the transit agency avoid service reductions that could make riding Metro a lot less enjoyable.
More Facebook features are planned for the future.
Ignoring Thursday's service disruptions, the timing is perfect. Earlier this week, Facebook relented on a change in their terms of use agreement, which would have given the site the rights to all user-generated content forever. After much protest from users, Facebook did an about-face and decided to return to the previous terms of use while issues that people raised are resolved.
