I'm from Long Island and I've just come back from my latest trip to the D.C. area. I spent 2 interesting days riding Metro.
Well, it looks like the car fleet is now starting to show its age. I assume the oldest cars (1000 series) are almost 30 years old, right? Well, either they're not being washed very often or the windows are just old. Either way, they've gotten very dirty and fogged up and are now hard to see thru. Including the front railfan window which is either tinted too dark or was just very dirty on many trains. I spent both days feeling like I was looking thru a haze. I don't remember this ever being a problem in past years. I've been riding this system about once every 2 years since 1988. The fleet always seemed in good condition until now.
On a positive note, I rode some rehabbed 3000 series cars and new 5000 series. They were in a little better shape. I liked the brightly lighted red and blue interiors. Does anyone know why they're doing the 3000 series, but not the presumably older 1000 & 2000's? Are they maybe going to replace the oldest ones and rehab the 3000 & 4000's?
I bought $6.50 day-passes twice. Cost-effective, yes. But one failed half-way thru the day and I had to go thru the manual gates several times after having the station-agents verify the card was valid. What a pain! Ya' know, I'm getting fed up with these fare-card systems in use in WMATA, BART and NYC! The machines are confusing to operate, except New York MTA's new ones that have touch-screens that walk you thru the process. Much better, but I still think that tokens were the best. At least Boston still uses them. Simple and effective!
My favorite route is the Orange Line to Vienna, down the middle of Interstate-66. In an earlier post we talked about top-speeds. I now believe the 59 MPH shown in WMATA's website is correct. The traffic on the highway was going a little faster than we were on the train, so 59 is probably right. The Blue-Line extension to Largo was a disappointment. Tunnel almost all the way. It only comes outside in a couple of spots and when it reaches the end of the line; oh well........ The Blue and Yellow lines past Reagan Nat'l Airport are still good to Huntington and Franconia. You can watch parallel CSX freight trains in that area too.
One last tidbit: On the Blue line I rode in lead-car #1000 AC. I assume that this was the very first car in the system! Kind of like LIRR's 9001-9002, right?
Well, it looks like the car fleet is now starting to show its age. I assume the oldest cars (1000 series) are almost 30 years old, right? Well, either they're not being washed very often or the windows are just old. Either way, they've gotten very dirty and fogged up and are now hard to see thru. Including the front railfan window which is either tinted too dark or was just very dirty on many trains. I spent both days feeling like I was looking thru a haze. I don't remember this ever being a problem in past years. I've been riding this system about once every 2 years since 1988. The fleet always seemed in good condition until now.
On a positive note, I rode some rehabbed 3000 series cars and new 5000 series. They were in a little better shape. I liked the brightly lighted red and blue interiors. Does anyone know why they're doing the 3000 series, but not the presumably older 1000 & 2000's? Are they maybe going to replace the oldest ones and rehab the 3000 & 4000's?
I bought $6.50 day-passes twice. Cost-effective, yes. But one failed half-way thru the day and I had to go thru the manual gates several times after having the station-agents verify the card was valid. What a pain! Ya' know, I'm getting fed up with these fare-card systems in use in WMATA, BART and NYC! The machines are confusing to operate, except New York MTA's new ones that have touch-screens that walk you thru the process. Much better, but I still think that tokens were the best. At least Boston still uses them. Simple and effective!
My favorite route is the Orange Line to Vienna, down the middle of Interstate-66. In an earlier post we talked about top-speeds. I now believe the 59 MPH shown in WMATA's website is correct. The traffic on the highway was going a little faster than we were on the train, so 59 is probably right. The Blue-Line extension to Largo was a disappointment. Tunnel almost all the way. It only comes outside in a couple of spots and when it reaches the end of the line; oh well........ The Blue and Yellow lines past Reagan Nat'l Airport are still good to Huntington and Franconia. You can watch parallel CSX freight trains in that area too.
One last tidbit: On the Blue line I rode in lead-car #1000 AC. I assume that this was the very first car in the system! Kind of like LIRR's 9001-9002, right?