Some Metro operators are still opening car doors before trains fully reach the station platforms, but Metro General Manager John Catoe said he was reluctant to order a procedural change that could stem the errors because it would inconvenience riders.
The errors occur when operators forget they are driving an eight-car train and pull their train up to the six-car stop, leaving the back railcar hanging in the tunnel.
Though nobody has been injured in the incidents — which have occurred at least 16 times since the beginning of April — they comprise some of Metro’s most serious safety violations because passengers who are leaning on the car doors or who accidentally exit the cars when the doors are opened could fall onto the tracks.
Officials have said they are considering ordering all operators, including those driving six-car trains, to pull up to end of the station to eliminate confusion.
“I’ve been out talking to operators about it, and one of the ways to fix it that, to be honest, I have resisted — and I take the responsibility for this — is that we could pull all of the trains down to the eight-car stop,” Catoe said.
“But as I told operators and our employees, that means we’re telling our customers they have to change because we can’t get it right,” he said. “That’s a pretty powerful message.”
The change would mean that riders would have to adjust to new boarding spots because six-car trains would not reach the
back portion of the 600-foot platform.
Metro already has taken measures to try to prevent the errors, including providing operators with placards that say “6” or “8” to place on their train consoles at the beginning of their shifts and making the six-car and eight-car train markers more prominent on the station platforms.
“I have a hard time understanding the issue,” Catoe said. “It’s pretty straightforward, and that it still occurs means that there’s a lack of attention. Maybe we’re weeding ourselves out of people who maybe wouldn’t have made it long term with us anyway.”
Operators who have three door violations are permanently barred from operating Metro trains.
“I will honestly see how it goes this week — how many of these we have,” Catoe said last week about making a final determination about the six-car train stops.
The last door error occurred June 6 at the Glenmont station on the Red Line.
