Metro to bring back automatic doors on the red line

As Metro transitions back to automatic operations, automatic doors will be coming to the Red Line. The announcement came at a meeting of the Metro board of directors on Thursday.

The return of automatic doors has two benefits. First, it removes the potential for dangerous human error, which can result in doors opening on the non-platform side of the train. Second, it improves timing for customers. With the current manual system, riders have to wait several seconds before the door opens. With the automatic system, the doors will open about five seconds after the train stops, compared to around 15 seconds with the current manual operations.

Metro says the return of automatic doors and automatic train operations could improve travel time on the line by 5 to 10 minutes and save WMATA $10 million. Metro expects to implement automated doors on the Red Line starting in October.

https://dcist.com/story/23/09/15/automa ... 7aiPVtA8DE

That MetroForward video clip has got to be a joke. It should not take 5 seconds between the birthing of the train at the platform and opening the doors. The whole process should take no more then 2 seconds.

That being said, that 10 second differences totals up to a 7 1/2 minutes shorter terminal to terminal run time on the Silver line.

Yes I agree on the automatic door timing being laughable. I remember when they instituted the manual "waiting time" and it was five seconds.

Having just used the Metro the last two days, and seen two trains no enter the station completely before pulling forward, and seeing the warning to train drivers that Tysons station westbound is a "hotspot" for overruns, I can see the 5 second delay to allow further train movements. (And if that 15 second claim is an exaggeration, based on my measures of 10 station stops on one train, it's only a 1-2 second exaggeration.)