Metro riders will be able to give their input into the design of the next generation of rail cars.
The agency plans to ask riders via consumer research and outreach about wall and floor covering materials, sign displays, lighting and hand-held bar styles.
Metro will conduct research from January to March on the 7000-series rail cars, then plans to release a preliminary design later that month. Three more months of consumer comment will follow, with the final design planned for the end of 2011.
Of particular concern for the Metro Board of Directors and its Customer Service and Operations Committee is the placement of handlebars and grab straps for standing passengers, still not resolved with the latest redesign.
Those cars, the 6000 series, were released beginning in 2005 and eliminated some of the standing poles by the doors to facilitate more efficient entry and exit. Overhead stainless steel grab straps, designed to be more accessible to shorter customers, were added.
Board member Anthony R. Giancola said the grab straps seemed to be underused because of their positioning closer to the aisle seats in the cars.
Most people, he said, simply grab the seat bar handles when standing in the aisle and leave the grab straps hanging above.
Christopher Zimmerman, chairman of the committee, added that customers might be better served with the handles moved toward the car’s open space by the door.
While some of the standing poles were removed from that area to keep people moving away from the doors, “during rush hour, people stand there anyway,” he said.
Many of the new cars will replace the older 1000-series cars and provide service for the Dulles Metro extension.
The 1000-series cars, which are more than 30 years old, have been called “unsafe” by the National Transportation Safety Board because of a tendency to collapse like a telescope.
After the deadly June 2009 crash on the Red Line, Metro began placing 1000-series rail cars at the center of trains to prevent telescoping, as happened in the collision between the Fort Totten and Takoma stations.
Metro officials have said they cannot afford to retire the cars ahead of their planned date in 2014, instead promising to replace them over a number of years.
