End of the cattle cars on the Yamanote Line

[Guest ___]

The blinking lights area thing of the past on many stations. We have the overhead display status boards that tell us when the train arrive. Many of the old flashing lights have been disconnected and are always on now. Interesting note is that the clear white has been replaced by a solid red.

[Mudkip Orange]

Well that stinks. The last time I actually rode the Metro in DC was three years ago.

 

Are the red lights color-coordinated to the red line? Or everywhere? It'd make sense to install extra bright lights on the red line, since that's the one that kills people...

[Guest ___]

When the first red lights appeared at Metro Center people thought the lights were line coded, but it appears now that red is the color along the edges for all lines. Half the lights flash and the other half do not, or not light up at all anymore due to deferred maintenance. I wouldn't be surprised if eventually they deactivate he entire thing. WMATA is hurting VERY badly these days.

 

It's not the red line that kills people. Red Line is nearly twice as big as any other line and carries the bulk of Metrorail traffic, followed by the Blue Line, Orange Line, Green Line, then Yellow Line which carries the least.

 

But getting back OT, I suspect full height safety doors and half height barriers will see their way to Metro once we get dedicated federal funding for the same reason barriers are going up world wide on HRT system like the Yamanote Line.

 

Personally, one of this discussion I had a while ago with Jon Cato when I ran in to him a few years ago at a function was talking about safety barriers, and equipment used on the Singapore MRT which included 4 cars per side (as with most commuter stock) and the ability to walk between cars.

 

Currently to go between cars on this metro, you have to open a door, walk over the coupler, then through another door, where as the MRT the cars are continuously joined, with no doors, or couplers or anything.

 

One of the things I like about the E233 was the six door cars for rush hour, and thought even four doors would be good.

But, I suppose six doors for speed vs, barrier for safety, that safety won out i nth end.