All Things WMATA 7000 Series

Now the countdown to 7500 begins!

Also.. has anyone else noticed a general like of 5k cars around lately? I don't seem them much anymore.

I did notice the 5Ks disappeared off OR/SV - wonder what they're doing. OR/SV is now mostly 3Ks and 7Ks.

Looks like they are doing firmware updates on the 7Ks. Silver line announcements have been updated, for example it pronounces Wiehle correctly now.

They need to update the door announcements to something more brief and human sounding. The current announcement is too long and the speech is too slow and robotic.

They also need to find a way to open the doors faster on 7k trains. Seems like it takes a good 30 seconds for the doors to open when the train stops. People get visibly irritated waiting for the doors to open.

They also need to find a way to open the doors faster on 7k trains. Seems like it takes a good 30 seconds for the doors to open when the train stops. People get visibly irritated waiting for the doors to open.

That's the operator, not the train. The operator can open the doors at will. But remember WMATA instituted that moronic "count to 7 before opening the doors" thing or whatever the useless count is. Based purely on the beeping I hear coming from the cab, I think the 7000s have a timer that beeps when it's time to open the doors. I could be wrong and it's just a coincidence. But here a beeping, then the operator pushes the open button. Most operators seem to ignore this useless rule on all the other trains. So I'm thinking the timer on the 7000s makes them a little more inclined to do it. I've ridden plenty of 7000 series where the operator opens the doors as soon as the train stops.

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So I wasn't hearing things. But it is still indeed the operator being slow about it and not pushing buttons properly. Shocking.....

Saw cars 7404 and 405 on the Green Line this morning.

It's a sad commentary that the newer, more technologically advanced subway system has delays in opening the doors. The hundred years old, primitive New York City subway system has doors opening as soon as he train stops.

NYC uses two operators. One drives the train and one operates the doors.

DC only uses one operator. This is probably because Metro was designed to use ATC so the train operator would only have to operated the doors while the train would drive itself.

The door issue is very annoying though. I see people both inside and outside of trains get very frustrated waiting for the doors to open. If you are at a transfer stop and trying to catch a train on the upper or lower level.. this stupid door issue can mean the difference between catching your next train or missing it.

srepetsk wrote:Can someone, maybe dcmike, definitively answer the question if the 7000's draw more power than the legacy series cars?

Rail car engineering is currently working on a full scale energy consumption study to compare the power demand of the 7000 series to the legacy fleets. They're testing on every route segment. My understanding is early results are showing 7000 series trains consuming around 25% more power to operate the same route segment.

Chris Brown wrote:Also.. has anyone else noticed a general like of 5k cars around lately? I don't seem them much anymore.

We've begun decommissioning 5000 series cars; 11 pairs are now removed from service. They're also primarily restricted to Orange/Blue service, so if you don't ride those lines you'll barely see them.

dcmike wrote:

srepetsk wrote:Can someone, maybe dcmike, definitively answer the question if the 7000's draw more power than the legacy series cars?

Rail car engineering is currently working on a full scale energy consumption study to compare the power demand of the 7000 series to the legacy fleets. They're testing on every route segment. My understanding is early results are showing 7000 series trains consuming around 25% more power to operate the same route segment.

PEPCO ought to like that, the budget won't.

dcmike wrote:...early results are showing 7000 series trains consuming around 25% more power to operate the same route segment.

That's a HUGE increase in power consumption.

What's bothersome is that this is just now being figured out. The power consumption should have been known through design and engineering, before the first car was ever even built. And that consumption should have been simply perfected upon the first few cars to roll out of the plant. How do we have hundreds of cars in service, and they only just now beginning to figure out how much electricity they used???

MCL1981 wrote: What's bothersome is that this is just now being figured out. The power consumption should have been known through design and engineering, before the first car was ever even built. And that consumption should have been simply perfected upon the first few cars to roll out of the plant. How do we have hundreds of cars in service, and they only just now beginning to figure out how much electricity they used???

I am in the same spot. Something much smaller like 3% I could see that might get lost in the noise, but 25% ought to have been noticed before the first car rolled off the line.

And it will require another round of Traction Power station upgrades to cope.

Perhaps. The first question is how did they miss this, and is there something wrong with the cars that Kawasaki needs to correct.

Or is this just a side effect of the 7000 series being heavier than the other railcars?