Have a Look at New Metro Rail Cars

by Prince Of Petworth — March 9, 2012 at 11:15 am 33 Comments

“Metro GM/CEO provides tour of new 7000-series railcar ”

Thumbs up or down?

harperpitt

Farrabut North?
- alex
  
  farrabut north…ha…haha
Susan

Think it is a good looking train car, but when did we get a station named Farrabut North
- Jack5
  
  Have you smelled the Faragut North Station recently? I think the proposed name change is appropriate.
cacasou

“Woodlley Park,” too :]
They look nice! Any idea on ETA?
jt

The intro. music makes it seem like @wmata won WWII or something. Or just blew up the Death Star.
- BrennaLM
  
  haha to me it sounded like someone was watching a little too much Pirates of the caribbean: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LZcMv0H1bI
  
  it is *so* close.
- BrennaLM
  
  Haha to me it sounded like someone was watching a little too much pirates of the caribbean. look it up, it’s *so* close.
chrish

i’m liking all the poles — good to hold on to when the brakes go out, derailments happen, etc. also looks comfortable while waiting 7 hrs during single-tracking.
- Anonymous
  
  +1000
kerbles

thumbs up, now just need working escalators to get to the platform
smilla

Is the video distorted so that things look narrower in real life? Maybe it’s the higher backs, but those seats look narrower than the old ones. If that’s the case, I assume it’s to provide more standing room in the aisles. Between obese Americans and the guys who like to air out their crotches while sitting, it makes me fear that seat hogging is going to be even more widespread, even if it’s not intentional.

Also, those electronic “here’s where you are” enhancements are nice for tourons, but as a regular Metrorail commuter, I’m far more concerned about the cars simply being reliable.
- xander_crews
  
  I always enjoy how pessimistic people are about metro. “tourons” as you put it are great for revenue and the more informed / less they are bugging me about where to go the better.
  - Anonymous
    
    making the cars more user friendly is key! people are afraid to use transit when they think they won’t know where/when to get off, etc. Having the progress of the train displayed is really important if you want your subway to stick around, you expert commuter, you…
  - smilla
    
    I want Metro to succeed — honestly, I do. I’ve ridden it for 25 years. Sadly, WMATA has given us plenty of reasons to be pessimistic (just as tourons have given us plenty of reasons to call them “tourons”), and, given its funding structure and management, I don’t see that changing any time soon.
- BrennaLM
  
  That was my first though when I saw those seats too…
- notlawd
  
  Arnt “we” always complainging about MD and VA drivers in the city? If you want them to drive less, than you have to make public transportation easier to navigte. I think this is a great improvement.
  - smilla
    
    I think cost, convenience (distance to stations, frequency of service), and reliability are much bigger factors in getting people to get people to ride Metro instead of driving. Plus, I would think that navigating Metro is easier than navigating the streets of D.C. Traffic circles, anyone?
- Anonymous
  
  I may be the only one that doesn’t believe that they consulted Operators and Maintenance people AT ALL in selecting the new trains…
  
  They look even more unsafe than the prior train cars because there’s no padding in them… A collision or sudden stop would be brutal.
Peyton

Drivers input have helped us design the new cockpit. They will not be able to drive the train while fully asleep and unnoticeable behind the drop down gray screen.
Tracey

They look like the newer ones in NY.

I’m glad they have the interactive sign so that I don’t have to panic when I stop paying attention, look up, and can’t see the signs that tell you where you are.
Anonymous

looks great, but really i just want more frequent buses.
Christine

Did they talk to any riders under 5’5″? If so they must not have listened to them, because we still have cars that are difficult for shorter people to use. My biggest gripe is that if you get stuck in the middle of the doorway area (which you will frequently during rush hour), there’s nothing you can reach with which to hold on and steady yourself. We need those retracting handles in the middle area, Sarles!!

Also, how long before those fancy (and expensive looking) screens showing destination information get vandalized? What a huge waste of money. I like the digital station trackers, though.
- dc_chica
  
  I agree – they need another vertical pole or two in the area near the doors for those who can’t reach very far. They also need overhead bars going across the car (not just lengthwise) so that those of us tall enough to reach up to a bar don’t have to jostle and compete with the shorter people who need to hold onto the vertical bars.
Anonymous

Thumbs up! They have these on some NYC subway lines and they are fantastic.
Kvatch

Nice looking, but the seats look less comfortable than the existing cars.

Some other facts that I learned from one of the articles on Metro’s site: The cars must run in groups of four–meaning the end of 6-car trains. They’re only destined for the Silver Line, at least initially because they can’t be interconnected with the existing car series’.

I think the incompatibility with the existing rail stock is going to be a big issue. My understanding is that they have to refurbish and upgrade the existing stock to make them compatible, and with Metro’s existing funding issues, that’ll be a challenge.
allison

Teehee Pirates of the Caribbean music.
Anonymous

One thing that I had hoped they would fix on the new cars is the orientation of the seats. Why have forward and rear facing seats? This means that people who easily get motion sickness can’t sit in 50% of the seating. If all the seats had their backs to the wall this would be alleviated. Further, with all seats with their backs to the wall there would be much more standing space.
- Anonymous
  
  You can fit more seats in the car the way it is now – no one likes standing particularly if there’s nothing to hold onto in reach.
Veteran Rider

Pardon my cynicism but how long until we find out that these cars have brakes that are unsafe at any speed?
And how long until the neat-o interactive signs fail? I have never been on an American transit system where they were consistently functional after a few years. (And sadly, yes I pay attention to that sort of stuff.)
But I admit I am truly, sincerely happy with one change – they’ve finally gotten rid of the useless armrests, which always reminded me of the stumpy little arms of the tyrannosaurs rex. The armrests only made it harder for two (non-skinny) to fit in the seats and for the window-seater to get out if the aisle seater wasn’t. So hooray for that!
- hiphopanonymous
  
  “they’ve finally gotten rid of the useless armrests, which always reminded me of the stumpy little arms of the tyrannosaurs rex.”
  
  Ahaha, agreed. I also have a tendency to bruise the back of my thigh/butt on them if I’m trying to sit down in a hurry. That’s a seriously painful place to hit!
R.

Who is manufacturing these? Alstom? They look like the R-160A cars used in NYC, even down to the inside color scheme.
jbparker13

are those really dot-matrix displays?

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