the trains that replaced the "rovers" (those buslike vehicles, "people-movers" or whatever they were called) at Dulles use this same design.

by Tina Jones on Aug 16, 2010 1:56 pm  

Look! Articulated trains! Longitudinal seating! *swoon*

by Adam L on Aug 16, 2010 1:59 pm  

Parroting usual complaint: Articulated trains are the future. Metro should get on board with the 7000s, especially considering the host of other new infrastructure that the new batch will require...

That said, those trains look awfully....cold. I much prefer the warmer tones used on Metro's existing stock (including the carpet, no matter how dirty it might be). That low-temperature lighting that seems to be becoming quite popular is simply awful. I can't stand riding on some of the newer Metrobuses because of it.

by andrew on Aug 16, 2010 2:03 pm  

The trains in Zurich have lines drawn on the platform to indicate where the doors open when the train stops. And the trains will stop RIGHT on the line every time. It's like clockwork.

Also, why is it that I had to refresh the captcha 8 times before I got something that didn't have either accented letters, greek letters, or other symbols that aren't on a standard American keyboard?

by PJ on Aug 16, 2010 2:07 pm  

"mobile lounges" is what I think they were called at Dulles. They looked more like something out of Star Wars though..

by nowisthetime on Aug 16, 2010 2:14 pm  

@PJ You mean like Swiss clockwork?

by Tina Jones on Aug 16, 2010 2:16 pm  

by Tina Jones on Aug 16, 2010 2:19 pm  

I believe metro was slowly getting rid of poles in the center (in fact I think all ceiling to floor poles) as they impinges the flow of people from the doors to the interior of the car. I think flared stanchions would just make this worse.

by RJ on Aug 16, 2010 2:39 pm  

Portland's MAX Light Rail has similar poles on most of their rolling stock:

by Nathan on Aug 16, 2010 2:41 pm  

Those Swiss! The trains will be ON TIME no matter what--even if nobody is on them!

by Stefan Sittig on Aug 16, 2010 2:50 pm  

As someone who was recently in Barcelona and liked the Metro system a lot, I'll note the timing signs were far from perfect. It's great to see the countdown timers, but, if a train is delays, the time is just bumped up. You need to be watching carefully, but it fairly often goes 45,44,43,50,49,48,... None of my trains were overly delayed in my brief stay, but I could see that being really annoying for longer delays.

by Dan on Aug 16, 2010 2:54 pm  

Another improvement I'd love to see would be little angular discs on the poles, spaced wide enough to be able to fit a large hand between them, but narrowly enough to make the poles uncomfortable to lean against.

by Matthew on Aug 16, 2010 2:59 pm  

what would also be helpful is countdown timers to tell you how long a train is going to be in the station.....helps with crowd control.

by charlie on Aug 16, 2010 3:00 pm  

You're lucky if you can actually see when the next train is arriving now. Far too often that information is hidden by numerous elevator breakdowns and problems throughout the system. I miss the days when they just announced that an elevator was broken a stop or two beforehand and you could always see when the next train was arriving.

by Craig on Aug 16, 2010 3:11 pm  

@PJ

Now that all trains pull to the front of the platform I can stand within a couple of feet where the doors will open - at least at the stations I use frequently.

by Joshua D. on Aug 16, 2010 3:13 pm  

@Craig

Agreed. The PIDS system takes forever to scroll through all the outages, delays, etc. The information should be on two separate screens.

by Adam L on Aug 16, 2010 3:28 pm  

Reminds of the Madrid Metro ad...

"The Metro that everyone wishes they had, lives in Madrid."

Burn.

I do like the multi-pole thing.

and...I need to travel!

by Peter Smith on Aug 16, 2010 3:38 pm  

@ Joshua D.
ThatÂ’s true, but I usually have to use in-station landmarks, mainly pylons, benches, and ads, to figure it out. ItÂ’s not really something a visitor to the city is going to pick up.

by PJ on Aug 16, 2010 4:04 pm  

I previously left my thoughts on PIDS & service outages... but while the accuracy of the data can be questioned, I do like the format. I don't need a second-by-second countdown for the next train; I'm quite fine with a minute-by-minute estimate for *my* train.

This is particularly relevant when dealing with trains that don't go to the end of the line; or multiple lines sharing the same trackway. The current PIDS format provides for that without cluttering the screen too much, so to that I do have to give WMATA some credit.

by Bossi on Aug 16, 2010 5:15 pm  

Is it possible to split what is displayed on WMATA's PIDS such as one half for trains and the other for news/delays.

There are some good things about WMATA but other problems seem as if no one who works their rides the system.

Many of the problems could be solved by paying attention to what riders want/do and placing things that are in the stations where there is alot of traffic in the stations and not on the far side from the escalators.

Many of the concerns, problems etc could be solved very easy but it appears like WMATA just doesnt give a f**k.

by kk on Aug 16, 2010 6:15 pm  

Is it too late to get the new 7000-series cars to incorporate these stanchions? Since we just gave the go-ahead to build them, perhaps this modest change can be inserted for a modest cost-change (perhaps even covered for the Silver Line trains by some of the possible cost savings in shifting the Dulles Airport station).

As for the train-arrival screens, a proper countdown with seconds is something I've wanted every since these things went up! It shouldn't be hard for most riders, even tourists, to realize that upticks on the clock would reflect the inevitable adjustments as trains occasionally slow for traffic control. I'd hope that WMATA wouldn't ditch this excellent idea simply because a tiny minority (however vocal they may be) can be expected to have more anger than sense to allow for the same kind of traffic shifts that happen in any form of transit. (For those people, I'd suggest that they consider having their employers force countdown-clocks on their driving commutes and then complain about their failures to arrive exactly on time.)

by jeffq on Aug 16, 2010 11:50 pm  

The observation made in Barcelona's Metro, regarding spliting the stanchion pole into three to accomodate those that are short, makes to much sense to be adopted by DC Metro, only because it would work.

by dcdotcom on Aug 17, 2010 9:01 am  

The trains in Zurich have lines drawn on the platform to indicate where the doors open when the train stops. And the trains will stop RIGHT on the line every time. It's like clockwork.

The Swiss aren't the only ones. the Singapore trains also have it. Actually they have squares to helpfully guide people on where to line up to board the trains.

But they also have smarttrip-type plastic cards that tourists can use. you put a in $2 deposit plus whatever money you need for fares to get the card out of the machine. and when you're done using the transit at the end of your trip, you load the card back in the machine and it returns your deposit.

Needless to say, the poles and handpulls were much better positioned for short people.

by lou on Aug 17, 2010 11:11 am  

Yes, it's one of the benefits of having all the trains always pull to the front of the station - the doors do open now within a few feet every time. It's amazing to me that more people haven't figured this out. This feature is not just on foreign transit systems - BART has had visual indicators on the platform edge for many many years. In fact, they even have little feet showing you where to stand so as to be out of the way of people exiting the train.

My initial reaction to the three-way stanchions was also entirely positive until I read the post that speculated they might make the crowding around the poles worse, thus making it more difficult to get people to move to the center of the car when boarding. I occasionally get on a car that has the poles from seat back to ceiling all the way through the car - this seems like the best solution.

Yes, the captchas do seem to be getting more complicated. My guess is that means that automated posters are getting more sophisticated and can "read" simpler captchas?

by Josh S on Aug 17, 2010 12:10 pm  

Another thing in Madrid and Barcelona's subways that we don't have here are really good pickpockets. It is still an art to be able to lift a man (or woman's) wallet without them noticing in some countries. But I agree, the poles seem much more functional than the ones in the DC metro. Whether they would aid future bands of domestic pickpocketers, I cannot say for sure.

by aaa on Aug 17, 2010 1:20 pm  

Reduces accidental finger touching too.

by Ward 1 Guy on Aug 17, 2010 2:07 pm  

That's my favorite part.

by Bossi on Aug 17, 2010 2:14 pm