Facts & figures

[Head-end View]

I was looking at Metro's official web site and found some interesting technical info in the "facts & figures" section. For instance (for those of us who like to compare speeds and car types of different systems): Top speed is 59 MPH and all 3 manufacturers' cars are 75 ft. long. Same length as NYC's longest cars.

[Robert Paniagua]

I actually knew about the car lengths, even longer by 5 1/2 feet than the longest cars in the Boston MBTA, the Red Line. Ours are 69 feet, six inches, 69' 9" coupled length.

However, the speeds on WMATA are considerably faster than you said. At one point, a railfan riding in a Rohr Car in the late 70s recorded the speed at 79 mph, although today's trains are supposed to go to 74 mph. Also, I've been on many WMATA trains that go up to 69 mph.

Our speeds in MBTAland are sadly, 49 mph, in the South Shore QB Extension and 39 mph the rest of the way except for the absurd 25 and 10 codes which I don't like, save the Harvard Curve, that's a danger zone so 10 mph is justified there. However, at the stretch between Van Ness-UDC and Tenleytown-AU, the top speed for some reason is only 35 mph no faster, citing the two sort-of-tight turns it has to make right after one station and right before the other, which at that point, they only do 30 right at those curves.

[Head-end View]

Rob, where are you getting that 74 MPH figure from? I think they might be faster than 59 MPH too, but their web site says 59, so what do I know? Going down the middle of I-66 to Vienna we do seem to be going faster than the mid-day normal traffic so you might be right.

Also, the Boston 1800's are only 69 ft. long? I thought they were at least 75 ft.; they seem really huge......

[Robert Paniagua]

Yeah, they are 69 feet long. I think it had to do with that tight turn at Harvard Square which a 75 footer would end up nearly touching the retaining walls, so that's why they opted for shorter car lengths...

As for the speeds, they do go a bit faster than those automobiles on 1-66 when we "race" them.....

However, there was the FTA SOAC running thru the Red Line in Boston which was 75 feet long, but at the time it made its special run, Harvard Station (the newest one) wasn't open with it's tight turn.