1000-Series Metro Cars: How to Avoid Them, If You So Choose
Hey, Metro rider!
By now, in the wake of Monday's collision, you've heard plenty about the different types of Metro cars---specifically how the oldest '1000-series' cars were judged by the NTSB years ago to offer substandard levels of protection in a crash.
So maybe you're thinking that you should avoid these cars. But how?
Very simple: At the front and back of each car, underneath the operator's window, there is a plate with a four-digit figure. That would be your car number. If the digit starts with a '1,' that's a 1000-series car.
Perhaps, under your personal risk calculus, you'd prefer to find another car---or at least one not on the ends of the train. (Two cars of the same series always stay together in 'married pairs,' but trains can consist of two to four pairs of different types.)
There were originally 300 cars of the 1000-type, numbered 1000 to 1299. 290 are still in service, Wikipedia notes. The exceptions:
Car 1028, separated from its mate after it was destroyed during the Federal Triangle derailment in 1982, has become the feeler car that checks system clearances. Four cars, now numbered 8000-8003, serve as the money train to collect the revenue from station farecard machines. 1076 is also permanently out of service after its mate was destroyed in the 2004 accident at Woodley Park–Zoo/Adams Morgan station. 1079 was the lead car on the second train involved in the 2009 Washington Metro accident.
Photo by Darrow Montgomery
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Linked From: June 25th, 2009‘Anomalies’ Found in Trackside Controls: Loose Lips Daily - City Desk - Washington City Paper
9:45 am[...] CASE YOU MISSED IT—”1000-Series Metro Cars: How to Avoid Them, If You So Choose; “Why the City Is Promoting Conservation With 100,000 Paper Doorhangers“; [...]
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Linked From: June 25th, 2009Metro Crash Aftermath « city block
4:05 pm[...] Train Control system as well as the track record of the 1000 series rail cars. WCP gives you tips on how to avoid them, while the WMATA board agrees to move the cars to the middle of [...]
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Linked From: December 19th, 2009Metro Crash Aftermath – City Block
2:19 pm[...] Train Control system as well as the track record of the 1000 series rail cars. WCP gives you tips on how to avoid them, while the WMATA board agrees to move the cars to the middle of [...]
8:45 pm
ooh the money train! now that sounds like an exciting car to ride on!!
10:45 am
Given that you have about a one in 600 million chance of being killed in a metro accident, this seems like a pretty useless investment in energy. You'd increase your odds of living another day by doing things like, for example, foregoing a single car trip.
11:36 am
It may be harder to avoid these cars on some lines. For example, the Green line has a lot more newer cars than the Yellow line. When they debuted the new carpet models, they started on Green and are just now getting to Yellow. If you wait for a new train on Yellow, you could be waiting a long, long time.
12:10 pm
Like I said, Jamie, it's all about your personal risk calculus.
Personally, I'm going to draw my personal line on boarding 1000-series cars at the terminal ends of trains. I'm going to avoid that, and just pick a middle-of-the-train car. Not much energy investment involved there.