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Washington Metro welcomes first 7000-series railcars
Are they 7000s or 8000s? The article says 7000 but the captions say 8000.
Ethan
I do believe the article means 7000 series cars not what the photo captions refer to as 8000 series.
A question for the group. Privacy screens? Is that the short “wall/bulkhead” near the exit doors?
Curious to know what the deal is with the tapered profile. Usually cars that shape are designed for tilting operation, but that obviously doesn’t apply here, and while it’s possible it’s because of the shape of the tunnels (similar to the circular profile of London’s tube trains) it seems unlikely. Is it just a cosmetic thing or is there a practical reason for the shape?
I love the Metro. One of the joys of visiting D.C.
The
Washington Metro was, unfortunately, built on a wide-gauge, by political dictum. The tapered sides allow the cars to be delivered via standard gauge railways and allow more room, seat-wise, for the lard-assed politicians, and others, who ride them. I think the ‘privacy screens’ refer to the bulkheads. No cheap up-skirt views for boarding politicians. Prob’ly warmer for the passengers, too, when the doors are open…
@WILLIAM D HAYS - I’m not sure that’s right? The Wikipedia page (which may be wrong - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Metro) says that the track gauge is - well, weird, but for all practical purposes standard gauge (it’s a quarter of an inch smaller - I’d love to know the logic behind that…) The loading gauge, similarly, allows 10ft of width (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Metro_rolling_stock) which again I think is marginally smaller than the regular US NEC loading gauge (Hard to find references but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_V seems to imply 10.5ft, with Amfleet being 9ft11in wide)
I have to admit this line of investigation has lead me to be even more confused. 4’11.25"??! WTH?
Looks like there are less seats and more standing than on the other series of Metro cars. Also, they finally lost that nasty carpet and the vestigial arm rests that were configured in such a way that on human being could put their arms on them.
The new cars look great, but surely the Metro track gauge is the same as the standard gauge in the U.S ? The loading gauge is clearly wider than many metro-type cars, which gives such superb interior space.
Looks like these new series Metro cars will be quite similar to those about to be ordered by Bay Area Rapid Transit in the SF Bay Area. That pending order’s publicity release came out in regional newspapers and other media a few days ago, and the digital renderings of the BART cars had a strong resemblance to the Metro cars artwork shown here. There are some key interior furnishings differences in the future BART cars (room for bicycles stored in racks), different handicapped-elderly seating but also (wise) elimination of troublesome carpets in favor of resilient laminate flooring.
Mr. Hays, to my knowledge, the only wide guage system in America is BART. Only the WMATA Rohr cars were delivered by rail, and these to the Brentwood yard, on a siding which no longer exists, all others, Breda, CAFand Alstom cars were delivered by truck and trailer.
Couple of facts for the discussion. First, the the WMATA system is considered standard guage. In practical terms 1/4" is not out of “standard” which allows 5/8" for wear. New ties are purchased with standard guage hardware attached.
Second, the original tunnels were made as narrow as possible to save cost and to stay within the rather narrow streets where the cut/and/cover tunnels were burried, this meant that the cars had to be “tapered” at the top to allow for the cant in the rails (lean on the turns) and still give top side clearance for a person standang on the safety walk as the train went by. Newer tunnels were designed larger, but any cars are limited by the early Red Line tunnels. SO, the bottom line is that some inside the car passenger space was lost, and will always be because of the design limitations.
Lastly,with the decision to allow stainless steel cars, and dedicated carsets, (cars with no cab) WMATA will enjoy better and more reliable train performance, and at a reduced cost per car - cabs are expensive! Plus, Kawasaki builds great cars, here in America. Good job WMATA!
When the 7000-series cars are welcomed as the newest Addition - then why are Pictures of the 8000-series cars are depicted? Is it ment to express that Metro is buying outdated stuff?
300 + 128 = ?
@John Frye: I think that SEPTA’s Broad Street Line aka Orange Line is broad gauge line.
@JOHN N FRYE - Thank you! That cleared everything up for me.
@JIM KERNER - I guess it’s “Broad” gauge in the sense that it’s the gauge for the “Broad” Street line, but it’s nonetheless standard gauge according to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Street_Line (but it’s Wikipedia so it might be wrong, still, I’m sure it’d be noteworthy if true and mentioned there.)
@JIM - But I did a little digging and found that the other SEPTA subway (well, actually mostly an EL though parts are subway), the blue line, is broad gauge: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market–Frankford_Line
Appears to be because parts of it were once meant to be shared with trollies, which commonly used 5’ 2.5" in much of the US.