Metro has installed different-colored warning lights near the platforms of the Gallery Place-Chinatown station as part of the transit system’s effort to improve safety.
Instead of the white lights that flash when trains are approaching and departing, Metro is testing amber lights on the platform serving the Yellow and Green lines atGallery Place-Chinatown. The Red Line’s platform has been outfitted with red lights. Besides being different colors, the new lights also shine brighter than the white bulbs.
Metro General Manager John Catoe said he hopes the new lights will get passengers’ attention and make them more likely to “step away from the edge of the platform when an oncoming train is expected.” Keeping passengers a safe distance from the track, he said, will reduce the number of passengers who stand close and are accidentally swiped by oncoming trains.
Metro is going to decide in six months whether to switch to the brighter-colored lights at all of its stations. The agency spends about $400,000 a year to purchase the white lights, but that amount would shrink by 25 percent if the brighter bulbs were used. The new bulbs also burn longer and use less electricity than the older ones.
“We wanted to find a technology that would lower our maintenance costs and reduce the number of times we must take a track out of service to install the platform edge lights,” said David Knights, Metro’s superintendent of track, structures and systems maintenance.
