WMATA 7000 Series to Begin Testing Monday, 1/6/13 (Photo Op)

[Fan Railer]

http://www.wmata.com/about_metro/news/PressReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=5633

 

[Ryan]

Thanks for the heads up.

Too bad I'll be stuck in a staff meeting.

 

[afigg]

The roll-out event for the 7000 series test units is reportedly not open tot the public because of the lack of space. It is for the politicians, agency heads, and members of the press. The list of politicians and agency heads expected for the event is quite impressive. It will be a big time dog and pony show.

Since the test track is apparently not completed, I would guess that they will initially run the cars between Greenbelt and College Park in the off-peak hours with single tracking for the revenue service cars. May be a while before the Series 7000 test set is seen in the wild running through Gallery Place and L'Enfant Plaza as a special train. I look forward to the new cars entering service, hopefully by this fall.

 

[Ryan]

It's being held on the platform at Greenbelt, which is most likely still open.

Here's a picture that Tracktwentynine just instagrammed:

http://instagram.com/p/i1TW8ei-Ef/#

 

[Ryan]

Moar from T29 - I like this!

 

[Ryan]

More pictures and a full writeup:

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/21267/see-metros-first-7000-series-train-as-it-arrives-for-testing/

 

[Fan Railer]

The roll-out event for the 7000 series test units is reportedly not open to the public because of the lack of space. It is for the politicians, agency heads, and members of the press. The list of politicians and agency heads expected for the event is quite impressive. It will be a big time dog and pony show.

Officially open to the public or not, I don't think they really enforced it. From Ben Schumin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8OcojbKVzg

A little teaser taste of that Toshiba Propulsion.

 

[afigg]

Officially open to the public or not, I don't think they really enforced it. From Ben Schumin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8OcojbKVzg

A little teaser taste of that Toshiba Propulsion.

Yea, since they were holding the press event on the platforms at the Greenbelt Metro station, sort of difficult to keep the public out. Anyway the photos of the interior and displays are not news because WMATA posted pics of the interior from the mock-up units.
BTW, for those who have not kept up on plans for the cars, the board authorized funds to replace the carpets in the Series 5000 and 6000 cars with the new rubberized flooring over the next 2 fiscal years. So in ~4 years, only the Series 2000 and 3000 cars will have the carpets with stains that one may be better off not looking at too closely.

 

[afigg]

BTW, the GGW blog has a link to a full set of photos on flickr from the series 7000 press event: I see that the test cars have the new Metro system map with the Phase 1 Silver Line. Which may or may not open for revenue service by April.

 

[Ryan]

The cars are out of order:

7006

7007

7005

7004

Wonder how that happened.

 

[Fan Railer]

The cars are out of order:

7006

7007

7005

7004

Wonder how that happened.

It may be that the numbering system is set up for the cab cars (A cars) to be even numbered and the blind cars (B cars) to be odd numbered. This is, as some may know, how the R44 and R46 cars of the New York City Subway are numbered.

 

[Tracktwentynine]

As Ryan noted, I was at the event (as a member of the Press) reporting for Greater Greater Washington.

The way the event was held was this:

Rail Operations took Track 2 out of the rotation. Track 2 is the track closest to the B&O/CSXT railroad. Metro Transit Police used barricades to cordon off the Track 2 side of the platform for the northernmost 3 cars or so of the platform.

A podium was set up right at the edge of the canopy for the dignitaries (Governor O'Malley (MD), Mayor Gray (DC), Senator Mikulski (MD), Senator Cardin (MD), County Executive Baker (Prince George's), Congressman Hoyer (MD-5), etc). A semi-circle of tripods was set up there for the various news outlets. About half were Washington area affiliates, but by my estimation, another half were Japanese media.

The original plan was to use WMATA personell to restrict access to the interior of the cars only to those who had been invited. The press had to check in in the mezzanine and get a "boarding pass". In practice, this was not used at all.

The train, of course, was 4 cars long, so the first car was completely accessible (outside only) to the general public on the platform. The doors for the first 2 cars (7004 and 7005) were never opened, including the bulkhead doors. The onboard tour was limited only to cars 7006 and 7007.

The barricades along the platform were guarded by a police officer at the south end, but the north end had a gap of about 10 feet from the platform end that was unstaffed.

When the train came in, many of the media clustered at the north end of the platform. General Manager Sarles was riding in the last car (7006), at the last door. The dignitaries, including Governor O'Malley and Maryland's Senators, had all been positioned so that when the rear door (only) opened, GM Sarles greeted them and welcomed them aboard.

The press swarmed on behind them, and eventually exited out the first door of car 7007 (the third car of the train). Because there were so many members of the press clustered around the podium, I couldn't even get close enough to hear the speeches. Instead I took the opportunity to tour the (now relatively empty) cars and hob nob with people I knew at the event.

I didn't wait for it to end. Instead, I hopped on one of the regular Green Line trains operating off of Track 1.

The writeup is here: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/21267/see-metros-first-7000-series-train-as-it-arrives-for-testing/
And my Flickr set is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39017545@N02/sets/72157639484042025/with/11802454873/

Right now, as far as I can tell, cars 7000, 7001, 7002, and 7003 have been manufactured and remain in Lincoln, Nebraska, to be used as models during the construction of the rest of the cars. 7004, 7005, 7006, and 7007 are, of course, on WMATA property and are stored at the Greenbelt Rail Yard at the north end of the Green Line.

Construction of the Commissioning Facility is ongoing. It's been topped out, but there's still a lot of work to be done. It's easily visible from the Outer Loop of the Capital Beltway. The facility is at the far east edge of the rail yard. I think they had to remove 2 storage tracks and part of the loop track for the footprint of the building.

Construction of the test track is also continuing. Two grade crossings across the Green Line have been installed. One is just south of the Greenbelt station interlocking. The other is just south of the MD 193 (Greenbelt Road) overpass. Switchpoints from Track 2 (SB) have already been installed, but currently don't lead to anything. Most of the work so far has been removing the soundwall along the west side of the WMATA tracks, clearing brush, and removing culverts and other obstructions. At the south end of the track, they've graded out the sub base, probably in preparation for installation of any required conduits, culverts, or other foundational structures. The test track construction is easily viewed from the Green Line between College Park and Greenbelt. I ride by it twice a day.

The "pilot cars", as 7004-7007 are known will be tested for 7 or 8 months. Any issues that are discovered may lead to changes in the design before serial production starts. Full production of the rest of the cars is expected to begin this summer sometime.

Because the 7ks can only operate in sets of 4, can't operate with other car series, and because WMATA no longer operates 4-car trains, the pilot cars won't go into revenue service until at least 4 more cars are recieved, tested, and accepted.

WMATA is saying that the 7ks might start going into revenue service in December of 2014.

All of the cars (potentially up to 748 of them) will be delivered by the end of 2018. In addition to fleet expansion, the cars will be used to replace all of the 1000-series (about 290 cars) and all of the 4000-series (100 cars).

 

[Ryan]

Over a year later, revenue service starting 4/14/15:

http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/capitalcomment/transportation/metros-next-generation-cars-will-finally-go-into-service-in-april.php

 

[afigg]

It only took 15 months of testing for the Series 7000 cars. Did someone hire a DOD contractor? I wonder how many months were lost to the tiff between WMATA and the Tri-State Oversight Committee which wanted even more testing. :blink: At least, there is finally a date for starting revenue service. April 14, just in time for getting in the tax returns!

WMATA's news release: Metro's first 7000-series train to debut April 14 on the Blue Line. Excerpts with info:

The first train in regular passenger service with eight 7000 series cars will depart from Franconia-Springfield shortly after 7 a.m. on April 14. The Blue Line serves five of Metros six jurisdictions: Fairfax County, the City of Alexandria, Arlington County, the District of Columbia and Prince Georges County.

And this

Requa noted that the second 7000-series train is already undergoing testing and is expected to quickly follow the first train into passenger service.

With the testing stage dragged out this long, I expect Kawasaki has a backlog of completed or nearly completed cars which have been or will be delivered soon. I will have to keep an eye out for Blue Line trains to see if I can get lucky and get on the first 7K set sometime after April 14.

 

[afigg]

WAMU preview report on the Series 7000 cars: PHOTOS: Touring Metro's New 7000-Series Railcars, Debuting Next Week. The report has updates on the projected deliver schedule for the confirmed 548 car part of the order.

The first 8-car train of the 7000-series will debut April 14 on the Blue Line. Metro expects to have two more 8-car trains in service in the next few weeks on the way to eight 8-car trains by the end of June.

The first 64 7000-series railcars are meant to accommodate the fleet expansion caused by the opening of the Silver Line last July. The next 300 7000-series railcars are expected to replace the entire allotment of 1000-series by February 2017, fulfilling a key recommendation of the National Transportation Safety Board after the 2009 Red Line disaster. Then another 100 7000-series railcars will replace the 4000-series, followed by 64 more 7000-series to accommodate the opening of Phase II of the Silver Line to Dulles Airport in 2018.

With plans to replace the carpets with the new flooring in the Series 5000 and 6000 cars proceeding and if the proposal in the FY2016 budget to start replacing the carpets in the Series 2000, 3000 cars as well doesn't get dropped, the days of the musty carpet smell could be coming to an end in 4-5 years.

 

[Dutchrailnut]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/local/a-new-metro-rail-car-is-born/2015/04/06/93e01dbe-dcb0-11e4-b6d7-b9bc8acf16f7_video.html

 

[afigg]

The Washington Post article on the pending entry into service of the 7000 Series cars that accompanies the video: Metro to debut first of its 7000-series cars on Blue Line on April 14. Has info on the timeline of the Series 1000 to 6000 cars, the Series 7000 cars being built by Kawasaki and the turmoil on the WMATA board. The Kawasaki plant in Lincoln, NE expects to produce about 16 cars a month once they get into full production mode. If WMATA does order the additional 220 car option on top of the current 528 car order, they will be cranking out the Series 7000 cars for the next 4-5 years.

 

[afigg]

The first Series 7000 trainset entered revenue service this morning. The Greater Greater Washington blog has a report and photos on the debut: Metro's 7000 series cars carry their first passengers, in pictures. Many of the GGW comments are about the pronunciation of the computer generated station announcements, especially for the Smithsonian and L'Enfant Plaza stops. Jeez, always something to complain about.

There have been reports that the second 7000 series trainset will go into service on the Red Line in a couple of weeks.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

I had to go into DC today and deliberately rode the Blue Line. Alas, I didn't get lucky. No 7000 series consist for me, despite even waiting for several 'Blues' before boarding both times.

Also - and totality off topic - I walked by the old REA building to look at what was up on the tracks and noticed all the 'Private Property No Trespassing Enforced by Amtrak Police" signs on that side of the tracks. Considering the recent back and forth court decision that Amtrak is not a private business, maybe it would help to make that claim stand by taking those signs down!?!

 

[afigg]

The new Series 7000 trainset did at least 1 run on the Yellow Line, reportedly due to the Green Line getting blocked by the pedestrian bridge collapse. The crane operator accidentally knocked down a pedestrian bridge over the Green Line north of College Park, messing up both the Green and Yellow Line operations. The bridge came down just before rush hour, trapping the trains at the Greenbelt yard.

Youtube video from Yellow Line Eisenhower station: WMATA/Metrorail - 2012–20 Kawasaki 7000-Series Metrorail Car #7004/7002.

(GGW's explanation of why the bridge collapse hosed up operations: Why did the pedestrian bridge collapse affect Metro so far away from Greenbelt?)

 

[The Davy Crockett]

hboy: hboy: hboy: hboy: hboy: hboy: hboy: Guess what? Metro has "issues!"

It is being reported that Metro's new 7000 series cars are having software "issues," and that Metro is looking into changes in the software on the propulsion systems and on the door systems. Also Kawasaki is only delivering 8 to 12 cars per month rather than the 16 per month scheduled under "normal circumstances." (And here I thought, when it comes to Metro, that 'screwed up' was normal circumstances! )

On another note, and this ain't nothin' compared to the above "issues," but IMHO, now that I've actually seen the 7000s in service, that without the customary brown striping of all other previous railcar series, they look too plain and, as a result, too "Gotham Cityesque," and not in harmony with the original architecture of Harry Weese.