Currently, subway cars have emergency exits at each end, limiting passenger movement. The new design is being considered for the transit agency’s 8000-series cars, which are in design and expected to begin production next year at a Hitachi Rail assembly plant near Hagerstown .
“We’re moving in that direction,” Metro CEO Randy Clarke said Thursday after a Metro board meeting. “We’re finalizing some design stuff with Hitachi right now. I’m really looking forward to trying to wrap that into both the vehicle body material and that open gangway. The open gangway is the world-class standard almost everywhere now.”
The open design has been on the wish list of Metro’s Accessibility Advisory Committee, a group of riders who advocate for passengers with disabilities. Its members were among the group that traveled to a rail yard to look at an open catwalk-style railroad car used by the New York subway system.
“Customers like the notion of an open gangway for easy crossing between railcars, increased capacity and ease of getting in/out of the car,” wrote Accessibility Advisory Committee Chair Patrick Sheehan, in a report to the Metro board.
Clarke said Metro is unlikely to create openings in every car on a train because that design would require most cars to be produced with open ends. It would also force Metro to choose between six-car and eight-car trains, but the The transit agency does not have enough rail facilities to handle an influx of eight-car trains.
Clarke said Metro is likely to create open walkways between two cars that are permanently joined together, known as “married pairs,” which is how Metro’s 7000 series cars are made.
“Part of that is giving us that flexibility to go between six and eight train cars,” Clarke said.
It would also allow Metro to maintain some design continuity with the 7000 series, such as door placement, which would provide consistency for blind and other passengers, Clarke said. The seats could include long benches against the car walls to create large open spaces, as well as back-to-back seats, according to designs Metro is considering.
The transit agency has ordered 256 Series 8000 cars at an average price of $2.15 million each, with an option to buy up to 800. The trains are scheduled to be delivered in 2025.
Mike Lebowitz, chair of Metro’s Rider Advisory Council, said he’s glad Metro is including riders to review the designs and provide input.
“Given that railcars have an expected life cycle of forty years, decisions made now will affect Metro riders for generations to come,” Lebowitz wrote in a report to Metro’s board.
Meanwhile, Metro continues to return all of its 7000-series cars to passenger service under a plan that requires regular wheel checks. The cars, which make up 60 percent of Metro’s fleet, were suspended in October 2021 after a federal investigation into a derailment found that several cars had wheels moving off their axles, creating instability.
Their absence created a train shortage that forced Metro to run reduced service with long waits for more than a year. As cars return, train waits are approaching their last recorded pre-pandemic levels.
Clarke said the next increase in train frequencies could depend on Metro’s ability to fill train operator staff positions. The agency wants to increase service on the recently reopened Yellow Line to match the Green Line and run trains every eight minutes all day, he said.
He said Metro has operators in training who are well on their way to becoming certified, but the process is lengthy. At the same time, he said Metro is continuing to work with regulators so that more trains can be released each day.
“We’re working on all of that,” he said.
