Pulling to the End of the Platform

Silver Spring has 3 escalators on the south side of Colesville Road (two paired, one reversible) and 2 paired escalators on the north side of Colesville Road (as well as an elevator on the south side of Colesville Road). When you add these facts to the fact the platform is a short distance from street level (unlike the deep underground stations in many parts of the Metrorail system), I think there's sufficient access between street level and the platform at Silver Spring. I've never personally had a problem (except when that single escalator is moving in the "wrong" direction), and I use that station almost every day.

"CHIP72"
Silver Spring has 3 escalators on the south side of Colesville Road (two paired, one reversible) and 2 paired escalators on the north side of Colesville Road (as well as an elevator on the south side of Colesville Road). When you add these facts to the fact the platform is a short distance from street level (unlike the deep underground stations in many parts of the Metrorail system), I think there's sufficient access between street level and the platform at Silver Spring. I've never personally had a problem (except when that single escalator is moving in the "wrong" direction), and I use that station almost every day.

Little factoid you may not know. The original plan envisioned for moving people between the various levels in the station was escalators every foot of the way, no stairs. The Silver Spring station was designed and built to those guide lines. The guide lines were later revised to allow a stair in lieu of an escalator where the vertical rise was less then roughly 20'. There are a few location in the system where the vertical rise is greater then 20' that have stairs, in those location they have 2 escalators.

The two location where there are stairs in Metro Center were original designed to accommodate 3 escalators in each location. When the station opened in 1976 those stairs were not there. Those stairs were put in after the design guide lines revised in the early 1980s.

And now the trains have been pulling all the way to the end of the platform every day this week on the Red Line, during rush hour. According to announcements made by the train operator this morning, it is due to "track enhancement".

Is this currently just a Red Line thing, or have people also observed this on the other lines as well?

"SchuminWeb"And now the trains have been pulling all the way to the end of the platform every day this week on the Red Line, during rush hour. According to announcements made by the train operator this morning, it is due to "track enhancement".

Is this currently just a Red Line thing, or have people also observed this on the other lines as well?

WMATA Press release:
Metro tests additional eight-car trains on the Blue, Orange and Red lines next week
01 02 2009

How does stopping at the end of the platform aid in testing the power supplies?

HokieNav wrote:How does stopping at the end of the platform aid in testing the power supplies?

It gets operators in the habit of stopping at the 8 car marker when they have an 8 car train, as opposed to stopping at the 6 car marker with an 8 car train, and gives them the chance to practice hitting that 8 car stop as closely as they can for when it truly counts next week.