All Things WMATA 7000 Series

"Chris Brown"
I don't think the extra weight will be a huge issue for track wear. I think a 8 car 7K train is still lighter than a 10 car NYC train which would be the same length. The 7K are not dramatically heavier than the rest of the fleet.

Just under half of the weight the cars is in the trucks. The 8 brake rotors alone weigh around 1,000 lbs.

In response to realtype's question about the quantity of 7Ks; there should be either 184 or 188 on site at this point, going by the 4-per week calculation method. I say this based on a WTOP article from 6/10/16 (cited on the wikipedia page) which says there were 144 on that date (and 4 must have arrived that week because a WAMU article from 3 days earlier said there were 140).

Sand Box John wrote:"Chris Brown"
I don't think the extra weight will be a huge issue for track wear. I think a 8 car 7K train is still lighter than a 10 car NYC train which would be the same length. The 7K are not dramatically heavier than the rest of the fleet.

Just under half of the weight the cars is in the trucks. The 8 brake rotors alone weigh around 1,000 lbs.

The 7k cars come in at about 80,000 lbs, which is over 5,000 lbs less than the current R160 cars in New York City. These are a little heavier than the previous 6k series as the married pairs were to not exceed 155,000 lbs. Those come out to 77,500 lbs. per car.

Source for the 6k (go to section 7): http://www.wmata.com/business/procureme ... ec_A12.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sorry, my comment actually came out a little disjointed. It should have said:

Yes, I noticed this almost immediately when I rode them. Not only do they look like newer NYCT Subway rolling stock (particularly the R160's) they almost sound like them too. Now I can instantly tell if I'm passing a 7K set in a tunnel or one is pulling into a station.

I believe this might have a lot to do with the stainless steel construction versus aluminum, which presumably makes the cars a lot heavier. Of course, they have smaller wheels and trucks than the "standard size" railroad trucks/wheels used in NYCT, so they should still weigh significantly less. Looking ahead, I wonder if an all 7K fleet will affect wear and tear on rails and points, more so than the current fleet.

Anybody have a tally of how many are on WMATA property? I suspect they've hit their 16-a-month target.

Thanks for the technical specs and the delivery update!

"tommyboy6181"
The 7k cars come in at about 80,000 lbs, which is over 5,000 lbs less than the current R160 cars in New York City.

WMATA cars have inboard frame trucks under them. Inboard frame trucks are significantly lighter then the outboard frame truck used by NYCT.

Why does NYCT use outboard trucks?

The current CARe report, pg 7 of the pdf, shows that as of Aug 26, Metro had received 188 7000-series cars, with 172 conditionally accepted and 20 train sets in service. http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/genera ... /CARe.pdf?

That means in 6 months Metro will have about 300 7k's total.. assuming the current speed of delivery doesn't change. This would also mean 100% of the 1k cars should be out of service within 6 months. Metro will then have close to 400 7k cars by this time next year. Which should mean 100% of the 4k cars will be out of service by the end of 2017.

But I have a feeling both the 1k's and the 4k's will hang around longer than that.

"Chris Brown"
That means in 6 months Metro will have about 300 7k's total.. assuming the current speed of delivery doesn't change. This would also mean 100% of the 1k cars should be out of service within 6 months. Metro will then have close to 400 7k cars by this time next year. Which should mean 100% of the 4k cars will be out of service by the end of 2017.

But I have a feeling both the 1k's and the 4k's will hang around longer than that.

The 7k car procurement was originally made to expand the fleet for the Silver line. 64 cars were for phase I, another 64 for phase II. WMATA will need 364 7k cars to bring the fleet up to the numbers needed to accommodate today's Silver line minus the 1k cars, 428 to open phase II.

Silver Line Phase II will not open until 2020 or later. Metro will probably have all or close to the entire 7k order by that time.

Curious if anyone knows the length of the current testing regimen for each quad set? I figure the test track on the Green Line has been completed, so they may be pushing cars through testing more quickly now? Also, do new railcars arrive on the metro property on any particular days of the week, or is it random?

I'm wondering about how fast the current testing process is too.

According to this video from last year, the commissioning process used to take about 3 weeks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pkcBNSKxDQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The 22nd slide in this report to the Board for the coming week mentions that 42 1000-series cars have been retired, as of June 30, 2016. http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/board_ ... Review.pdf

"JDC"The 22nd slide in this report to the Board for the coming week mentions that 42 1000-series cars have been retired, as of June 30, 2016. http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/board_ ... Review.pdf

That number tallies with what I have. It should be noted that the 42 number counts only the cars shipped to Baltimore for scrapping and not the cars cutup on the property or shipped elsewhere.

WMATA upped the pace of scrapping sometime in July from 2 a week to 4 a week so add at minimum 25 as of this date.

The 7000 series has definitely boosted the number of 8 car trains on the Red Line. Before 8-car trains seemed to make up about 1/3 of the rush hour trains, now it's about 2/3, and most of the 8-car trains are 7000-series.

I'm really surprised at the number of issues that they still seem to be having though. Quite often the exterior destination/line signs don't seem to be working (but it could be the same set I've seen over and over), I've been on a couple cars that didn't have functioning HVAC, and I think I've seen a car that didn't have functioning doors.