WMATA can't seem to decide how long to make trains on a given day. Almost all trains are sixes during rush but outside rush it seems to be totally random. For example, midday today, all Red Line trains no matter what the destination were 6 cars, as were Oranges. But the Blue Line trains were all 4 cars. Then there are times where on a Saturday, everything is running sixes except the short turn Red Lines, and the next weekend, half the Reds are 4 as well as all the Greens and Yellows. Any idea what is going on?
Oren,
It does not surprise me that you have made this observation. I think the answer to this quandary is pretty simple. "Rolling stock shortage".
This is something I have been bicthing about for more the 15 years. If you check this search of "WMATA rolling stock" at groups.google.com you can read some of the discussions on this subject.
WMATA has had a rolling stock shortage from the day yellow line service started between Gallery Place F01 and National Airport C10 back on April 30 1983. Extension of the yellow line service on the C route to Huntington C15 started on December 17 of that same year. At this time the Bredas were just coming on line. Opening the station south of National Airport C10 using Yellow line service was a stop gap cure to get these stations open with the available rolling stock that WMATA had at the time. Most here don’t know that Eisenhower Avenue C14 and Huntington C15 stations were shown on maps prior to there openings as Blue line stations.
After the November 22 1980 8 car trains disappeared from the system. That right at one time in the past WMATA ran 8 car trains on at least 50% of the peek scheduled trains on daily bases.
These random consists will be a fact of life until the WMATA gets the CAF cars fully operational. 950 cars are needed to run all trains with 6 cars consists with 68% utilization with all of the CAF cars fully operational. We will not start seeing the return of 8 car trains until the first batch of Alstrom cars come on line in 2005 and there will only be 8 8 car trains in the schedule. We will not see 8 car trains in significant numbers until 2013.
For more details about rolling stock procurement download Integration of Infrastructure Renewal, Core Capacity, Regional Bus and System Expansion Plans.
PS this document will hold some of the answers to the next WMATA metrorail quiz I am putting together.
John