On a related note, with the ongoing work at the Telegraph Rd bridge, which occasionally requires weekend closures of the Blue Line, I benefit on those weekends because they route the Blue Line trains to Huntington when they shut it down between King St and Van Dorn.

by Froggie on Oct 6, 2011 3:01 pm • link • report

Fun fact: If WMATA would go driverless – which shouldn't be that hard considering that the system was designed for automatic operation from the start – then minimum headways on weekends and evenings could conceivably drop to close to 5 minutes. The biggest marginal cost when it comes to off-peak headways is labor (as opposed to peak service, where it's number of vehicles), and by eliminating on-board labor, you can do wonderful things with off-peak headways.

But of course, they've actually regressed and are now operating in manual mode. It's not a matter of money – it's a matter of competence. Running trains on automatic would actually save money in the medium- and long-term.

by Stephen Smith on Oct 6, 2011 3:33 pm • link • report

…oh, not to mention that it would do wonders for single-tracking efficiency. Computers are much better at doing the complex calculations necessary to run two trains on one track than humans.

by Stephen Smith on Oct 6, 2011 3:35 pm • link • report

It's the WORST on the Red Line, because the downtown portions don't benefit from interlining like the other lines do.

A few months ago, Metro ran some NY Ave to Van Ness trains to compensate for singletracking on the outer stretches, and it was by far the best weekend service I've ever seen on the Red Line. I'd love to see them take up this practice again in the future.

Although it sure is nice that the suburbs have frequent Metro service 7 days a week (name another US city that does this), it's silly that we're continuing to prop those services up when it's coming at the expense of the downtown core.

The Park & Ride stations are particularly egregious; if you're going to be driving to Vienna before hopping on Metro, it's not terribly painful to get yourself over to East Falls Church. You could reduce service to these stations or replace rail service with bus service, and things would get better for almost everyone.

(I kind of wish that the Orange Line stations had been built with some kind of BRT platforms that would have allowed buses to pull straight up to the station from the highway. That'd have been a pretty slick solution for bus-to-rail transfers and bus substitution that wouldn't have cost much if it'd been incorporated into the original design)

by andrew on Oct 6, 2011 3:44 pm • link • report

@Andrew:
Actually, you're wrong. The downtown sections of the Red Line are interlined.

There are essentially 2 Red Lines. One runs from Shady Grove to Glenmont. The second runs from Grosvenor to Silver Spring.

On the weekend you mention, the NY Ave - Van Ness trains were actually just the Silver Spring - Grosvenor trains. Except they were truncated due to trackwork on both suburban ends of the line.

And they do this almost every weekend that there is work on the Red Line. If you go to the Disruption Calendar, and click on weekend Red Line work events, generally it says something like, "every other train will run between Silver Spring and Dupont Circle" or something like that.

by Matt Johnson on Oct 6, 2011 3:50 pm • link • report

@Stephen Smith:
Metro's trains were never designed to be driverless. Nor was the train control system. Unlike (for example) Vancouver's system, which was designed that way from the start.

It would take a significant capital upgrade to do anything of this sort. And by significant, I mean a complete rebuilding of all the hardware and software systemwide.

by Matt Johnson on Oct 6, 2011 3:52 pm • link • report

If Metro really wants to keep the weekend feel of that stretch track intact, a significant percentage of the shuttles should circle past the Convention Center stop and head northbound with only a "No Passengers" sign on board.

by phil on Oct 6, 2011 3:59 pm • link • report

The current running of trains in manual mode is a result of the track circuit malfunction/Red Line crash not due to any operational inability to run in automatic mode. And the work that is prompting the closure along the green line will have the effect that trains will eventually resume being allowed to run in automatic mode.

by DCster on Oct 6, 2011 4:05 pm • link • report

The one wildcard to the bus replacement service - from what I've heard this is Howard University's Homecoming weekend, so traffic along portions of the shuttle bus route may not be moving so freely.

by Adam on Oct 6, 2011 4:07 pm • link • report

@Adam, I think HU homecoming starts next week and extends until the following week, which is when most people will be in town. So they are probably right to focus on doing the green line this week as opposed to any other this month.

by HogWash on Oct 6, 2011 4:23 pm • link • report

@Matt

Not that it will ever happen, but I would argue that driverless train operation could be implemented solely with onboard changes. All you have to do is wait for the train to be berthed (which can be determined from the TWC bits), open the doors, dwell, close the doors (and re-cycle them until they actually close), and push the ATO start button, then repeat. I can't see any reason that the wayside equipment would know the difference between a train operator taking those actions and a computer taking those actions. Though I doubt it would ever pass any sort of safety certification, even the existing rolling stock could be modified for driverless operation.

Driverless train operation doesn't require CBTC, although most (if not all) driverless systems in operation today use CBTC; when NYCTA experimented with automating the Times Square Shuttle in the early 1960s, it was driverless:

http://www.nycsubway.org/lines/irtshuttle.html

by Kurt Raschke on Oct 6, 2011 6:20 pm • link • report

@Matt

Fine. It's interlined, but not during off-peak hours, which is really when this issue is most noticeable.

by andrew on Oct 7, 2011 11:27 am • link • report