Matt, the creator of
@unsuckdcmetro
, reportedly passed away over the weekend. Here’s a podcast episode we recorded with him in 2018: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/26-square-miles-an-arlington-podcast/id1152262741?i=1000420659652

Link to tweet

Matt Hilburn, who criticized Washington transit pseudonymously as Unsuck DC Metro, has died.

NEWS & POLITICS

Matt Hilburn, aka “Unsuck DC Metro,” Has Died

WRITTEN BY ANDREW BEAUJON | PUBLISHED ON JULY 19, 2022

Matt Hilburn, who criticized Washington transit pseudonymously as Unsuck DC Metro, has died. He was 54. Hilburn worked for Voice of America, which confirmed his death to Washingtonian.

Unsuck DC Metro began as a blog in 2009 but later took the form of a popular Twitter account. Hilburn initially organized his efforts around the idea that Metro and WMATA could improve with transparency and provided a safe haven for whistleblowers. In recent years, though, his accounts became more scathing and pessimistic.

https://twitter.com/unsuckdcmetro

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Unsuck’s often churlish behavior in later years tends to overshadow his accomplishments when he began his work. It was for a long time the best way to find out about problems in the system when Metro had not yet found its feet in digital media. As former Washington Post columnist Robert McCartney wrote in 2011, “The shortcomings described on his blog and others that follow Metro, although anecdotal, offer a damning portrait of flawed habits.”

{snip}