January 11, 2005
Cattle cars
DCist is looking at possible seating configurations for new Metrorail cars.
I considered the five options presented by WMATA to increase rail capacity to deal with growing ridership and a stagnant system, and I found all of them lacking. Would removing all but 16 seats (they now have 64) really add only 13 percent more capacity? Would people really ride what amounts to an empty boxcar? Would it be hilarious or sad that one fat jerk could take up 12.5 percent of all seating in a car?
What surprised me most, however, is the lack of improvement provided by bench seating. By adopting an arrangement used on some New York and London lines that alone carry more people than the entire D.C. Metro, we gain capacity for six more souls, while sacrificing 14 seats. That doesn't seem like a good deal to me. Here are some better ideas:
- Improve downtown circulator service: There was some talk a while ago of Bus Rapid Transit along K Street between Union Station and Georgetown, but I haven't seen much work on it recently. Such a system, if swift and well-publicised enough, would take some of the strain off the downtown core stations by diverting people on short trips and commuters into Union Station as they fan out across downtown.
- Integrate commuter rail: There is no reason why someone using the Rockville or New Carrolton stations shouldn't be allowed to use the same SmartTrip card to use the MARC train instead of Metro if they please. Of course, MARC and VRE have to be improved as well, but that's a different story for a different day.
- Eight car trains: Just as soon as they figure out how to stop them.
Posted by rj3 at January 11, 2005 11:46 AM
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Comments
We just gotta sqeeeeze in a little tighter, standing up.
Ugh!
Posted by: Andy at January 12, 2005 2:27 AM