A Suggestion for Metro

I have a suggestion for Metro: Retire the Rohr cars for good and put most of the Alstom cars on the Red Line; I am getting tired of seeing those crummy Rohr cars, especially on the Red Line; God, I HATE the Rohr cars, I won't even get on one when I ride Metrorail by myself. The Rohr cars are reaching the end of their life line; they've been in service for 30+ years (since Metrorail first opened in 1976 [a good 11 years before I was even born.]) Didn't the Red Line at one point have mostly Breda cars (before there were the CAF and Alstom cars)?

Metro does not currently have the rolling stock to retire the Rohr cars. If they did, we would have a serious car shortage. Having said that, I have noticed that the cleaning on these cars recently has left much to be desired, and makes them look even older.

The Rohrs are not at the end of their useful service lives just yet. They all received a GOH in the mid-1990s that extended their lives. For awhile (and this may still be true), they were breaking down less frequently than the CAFs and Rehabs.

As much as I like the new cars I am not ready to see the Rohrs go as they are one of the reliable sets in the system. I have always like the motor sounds of the Rohrs and they my second favorite cars to ride. As for the Alstoms I don't know what will happen when they are all delivered. I pray that once they are reliable enough then I hope metro comes to a decision to deploy most of the Alstoms to the Red and Orange Lines to reduce crowding.

red-orange line wrote:As much as I like the new cars I am not ready to see the Rohrs go as they are one of the reliable sets in the system. I have always like the motor sounds of the Rohrs and they my second favorite cars to ride. As for the Alstoms I don't know what will happen when they are all delivered. I pray that once they are reliable enough then I hope metro comes to a decision to deploy most of the Alstoms to the Red and Orange Lines to reduce crowding.

From a capacity standpoint, the Alstoms should be assigned to the Orange Line in the largest numbers. I had a proposal of sorts to assign single types of cars to each line wherever possible, such that the Orange Line had the Alstoms, the Blue and Yellow Lines had the Rohrs, and the remaining lines had the balance of what was left. Details and why people don't think it is practical are on this thread: http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=40756.