Seats may be removed from Metro trains to accommodate the rapidly growing number of commuters, if Metro's planning and development committee's suggestions are followed.
The committee proposed several ways to improve flow and capacity at a Jan. 6 meeting, including the removal of eight to 48 seats from the rail cars with 64 to 81 seats.
Commuters voted on the Metro Web site, www.wmata.com, for their favorite of five seating arrangement options. Three options include removing seats, one for bench seating similar to New York City subway cars, and one for no change.
Preliminary results have shown customers would prefer bench seating or no change, said Metro spokesperson Steven Taubenkibel. He said that no decision has been reached on which option, if any, will be implemented.
"You have to strike a new balance," Taubenkibel said. "We recognize that a lot of suburban riders want to sit during long rides, and a lot of city riders can't find a seat the way the cars are now."
Taubenkibel said bench seating would be very costly to implement, since equipment stored under seats would have to be taken out and reinstalled. He said Metro hopes to buy more rail cars within three years, to increase trains from six cars to eight.
"If we are unable to buy an additional 120 rail cars, which will allow us to carry 30,000 more people, severe over-crowding will prevent Metrorail from meeting the transit demands of this region," said Lem Proctor, chief operating officer of Metrorail, in a recorded message.
Taubenkibel said that Metrorail is "at capacity" and delays are common throughout the entire system. This is partly because Metrorail has two-way lines, unlike other rapid transit systems that have overlapping lines and express routes.
"It's a two lane highway," Taubenkibel said. "If something breaks down, that holds all the trains on the line back"
