train lengths

I don't think this was ever brought up before, but my apologies if it was.

My experience with MetroRail is that trains are either 4 or 6 cars long. However recent posts suggest trains that are 8 cars in length. When did this start and which lines are affected?

When I've taken Metro (last time ~ 18 months ago) its been the Red line to Shady Grove or Blue/Yellow lines from National Airport. I've never seen an 8-car train on those lines.

There have been very few occasional 8-car Orange Line trains.

"orangeline"
I don't think this was ever brought up before, but my apologies if it was.

My experience with MetroRail is that trains are either 4 or 6 cars long. However recent posts suggest trains that are 8 cars in length. When did this start and which lines are affected?

When I've taken Metro (last time ~ 18 months ago) its been the Red line to Shady Grove or Blue/Yellow lines from National Airport. I've never seen an 8-car train on those lines.

The 8 car trains are assigned only to the Orange and Red lines during peak services hours. I don’t know the exact date the first 8 car train were dispatched but they started to appear in December of 2006. Plans call for 8 car train on all lines by the end of this year. Most will be assigned to Orange and Red lines

Haven't seen any 8s on the Red Line. WMATA certainly hasn't advertised that (they have prominently advertised the Orange Line 8s). I've seen an occasional 8 on Green.

I always feel like there isn't enough platform space at Gallery Pl for an 8-car Red. I know the system was built with 8-car trains in mind, but it always seems like a 6-car barely fits on the platform. As you come up from the lower platform, the last/first car of the Red Line train is right there. I usually walk down to the other end of the platform and it doesn't seem like there are 2 cars' worth of space down there.

"Politburo"
I always feel like there isn't enough platform space at Gallery Pl for an 8-car Red. I know the system was built with 8-car trains in mind, but it always seems like a 6-car barely fits on the platform. As you come up from the lower platform, the last/first car of the Red Line train is right there. I usually walk down to the other end of the platform and it doesn't seem like there are 2 cars' worth of space down there.

That because the program station stop at Gallery Place on the upper level is configured to stop train that are less then 8 cars at the east end of the platform. If the end of the 6 car train is at the east end of the platform there is room for the other 2 cars at the west end of the platform.

I looked again this morning and it just doesn't seem like 2 cars will fit down there. I guess I'll have to believe it when I see it!

Politburo wrote:I looked again this morning and it just doesn't seem like 2 cars will fit down there. I guess I'll have to believe it when I see it!

Here in Boston we have signs marking stop locations for different length trains on the Red Line (since there isn't ATO) -- nearly every one of them looks too short to fit the two additional cars in there, until you see the actual train pull in. It's decieving...

8-car trains on the Orange Line are actually quite frequent during morning and evening rush. At times, every other train is 8-car.

I can only recall seeing an 8-car train on the Red Line once. 8-car trains are also used on occasion after sporting events at RFK Stadium.

octr202 - There are signs here too. The distance between the signs is only one car length, even though the number goes up by two. This is because the train is (usually) centered on the platform, so there's one extra car at the front and one at the back.

So yes, the signs are deceiving. I'm not basing my judgement on the signs though.. just a general sense of how long the cars are and how much space is on the platform. I'll just have to wait until more of the new cars arrive and they're put into service on the Red Line.

The first time I saw 8-car trains was in November 2004 when Metro had to single-track around the Woodley Park accident for a few days.

After baseball games at RFK I have often seen 8-car trains on the Red line as well as on the Orange & Blue lines.

"Yonge"
The first time I saw 8-car trains was in November 2004 when Metro had to single-track around the Woodley Park accident for a few days.

First time I saw an 8 car train was back in the spring of 1975 on track A1 (Glenmont platform) in Metro Center during testing of both the Rohr car and the train control system. I have a slide of the train I shot from the east mezzanine above the Shady Grove Platform.

Being that I haven’t been in Washington DC on a weekday during peak service times in more the 15 years I haven’t seen them in person sense WMATA started dispatching them again.

Last time I saw 8 car trains was before the Yellow line opened to Huntington in 1983.

Eight car trains are uncommon, but not unheard of. Especially on the Orange Line. 8 car trains are rarely seen on the Red Line (trust me, I'm a frequent Red Line rider), and they are almost never found on other lines. There are always 8 car Orange Line trains for service after Nationals games at RFK Stadium. THese trains usually enter service there (as opposed to the usual New Carrollton). Blue Line trains cannot run eight car trains because it doesn't have enough cars to even run all six car trains during rush hour (I believe 2 Blue Line rush hour trains are 4 cars long).

However, with the delivery of the new Alstom 6000 series cars, that will change, and 8 car trains will become much more common on all lines, especially the Orange and Red.

On weekday mornings I occasionally check out the VA I-66 traffic cameras on trafficland.com. I have seen a few 8 car trains running near the end of AM peak.