Metro resumes automatic train operations on Red Line after 15 years
Metro begins automatic train operations for first time in 15 years
After recently getting approval, Sunday was the first day Metro operated automated trains for the first time in 15 years. Metro has officially rolled the automation out on the Red Line and says the plan is to have it system-wide by the end of next year.
WASHINGTON - After recently getting approval, Sunday was the first day Metro operated automated trains for the first time in 15 years.
The Metro system was originally designed for automation but WMATA put the program on pause after a collision on the red line in 2009.
Metro has officially rolled the automation out on the Red Line and says the plan is to have it system-wide by the end of next year.
FOX 5 spoke to a number of passengers here today who said they didn’t notice much of a difference.
"If you hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have guessed it was anything different. Just the same as usual, as the others," Metro rider Patrick Fort said. "We have automatic subways in Paris. They’re all automatic there and it works just fine."
Rider Sara Tashakori felt much the same.
"I didn’t feel any different. It was great. Safe," she said.
RELATED: Metro looking to reintroduce automated trains 15 years after deadly crash
The stated goal of automation is a safer, smoother ride and faster speeds for some of the longer rides in between stations in the system.
All trains will still have a human being in the cab, monitoring things inside the train and looking for potential safety issues on the tracks.
A Metro spokesperson says the agency has been testing and tweaking and perfecting this system for rollout for a while now.
A few months ago, FOX 5’s David Kaplan spoke with transportation expert Dr. Carl Berkowitz who says the tech continues improving.
"We’ve made a lot of progress. It’s taken a long, long time," Berkowitz said. "The technology gets better, the technology gets proved, not with changing the equipment so much but with updating software."
So far, the only issues seen were some instances of overrun, where the automated trains went past where they were supposed to stop. But a Metro spokesperson characterized this to me as minor, saying if there were overruns it was only around a foot or so.
Fixes that can and are expected to be made today so they can be ready for tomorrow’s big rollout on the Monday morning commute