(The following story by Lena H. Sun appeared on the Washington Post website on September 1.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The first in a long-awaited shipment of new Metrorail cars is expected to arrive this month as the system braces for record crowds after a summer marked by some of the biggest ridership increases in the agency’s 30-year history.
Metro officials expect to bring 50 rail cars into service by the end of the year to relieve crowding on platforms and in trains. Plans call for the first six to eight of the new cars to start carrying riders this month.
Where those cars will go will be determined at a board meeting Thursday, when Metro officials plan to outline a much-anticipated deployment schedule based on which lines have the largest crowds on their cars.
Officials expect that the added capacity will allow them to run eight cars on roughly 20 percent of peak-period trains by the end of the year. Most of the current service consists of four- or six-car trains, with a limited number of eight-car trains on the Orange Line during the morning rush.
The new cars are arriving as a growing number of Washington area residents rely on mass transit to avoid congested highways and high gasoline prices, according to a U.S. Census survey released this week. Thirteen percent of workers in the Washington region get to their jobs by bus or rail, ranking the region behind only New York and San Francisco in the popularity of mass transit. In the 2000 Census, the Washington region also trailed Boston and Chicago.
Average weekday ridership on Metrorail was 724,000 in the spring and increased to 745,321 in June and 747,329 in July.
In the fiscal year that ended in June, Metrorail set a record for total passenger trips, surpassing 200 million for the first time. Metrorail had a 5.3 percent increase, or about 10 million more customers going through fare gates, than in the previous fiscal year. And more people — 18,745,046 — took trips on Metrorail in June than in any other month in the rail service’s history, officials said.
Officials attributed high summer ridership to good weather, high gas prices, improved reliability of rail service, Washington Nationals games and other events. The numbers are expected to increase in the fall, when school starts and Washingtonians return from vacations.
Interim General Manager Dan Tangherlini said the census figures highlight a broader trend.
“We’re continuing to reap both the benefits and costs of success,” Tangherlini said. The success of the region, with its low unemployment rate and the country’s second-highest average household income, is also putting a strain on Metro, he said.
“The train cars aren’t getting bigger,” Tangherlini said. “We’re trying to get more out there and make sure our aging fleet of rail cars is able to be out there every day.”
Metro’s ridership has increased 40 percent in the past 10 years, he said. If Metro shifted to running only eight-car trains, “you could argue that we are another 10 years from filling them up.” After that, he added, “we begin to run out of bunnies to pull out of the hat.”
The first batch of new rail cars was supposed to go into service in the spring, but they were delayed after cracks were found in a critical part. Manufacturer Alstom Transportation Inc. halted production for four to five weeks. As a result, instead of having 100 new cars ready for service by the end of the year, Metro will have half that number.
Other steps to increase service this fall include running weekday schedules instead of holiday schedules on Columbus Day and Veterans Day. In October, Metro is to increase off-peak service on the Red Line from Grosvenor to Shady Grove in Maryland.
In January, officials will begin an 18-month experiment to extend the Yellow Line through rebounding neighborhoods in the District to Fort Totten. The Yellow Line would serve what are now exclusively Green Line stations in the U Street, Columbia Heights and Petworth neighborhoods, where new shops and homes are increasing demand for subway service.