More riders squeezing onto Metrorail as gas costs force commuters off roads

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Metro’s already-packed railcars are being crammed even tighter as area residents flee the highways.

With the transit system experiencing record-breaking ridership days in rapid succession as gas prices surge, Metro officials are considering putting retired buses back in service and adding more eight-car trains if the trend escalates, General Manager John Catoe said in an exclusive interview with The Examiner.

“Every day now we’re getting closer to 800,000 per day on the rail system, and that’s been happening very quickly,” Catoe said.

“The only thing to attribute that to is people are shifting from their automobiles, because it’s not that there’s this big surge of new jobs,” he said. “That’s not happening — it’s going in the opposite direction.”

While Metrorail averaged 702,171 weekday riders during fiscal 2007 — the first year in the system’s history that the average passed the 700,000 mark — the railway now is routinely seeing close to or more than 800,000 riders a day, with most of the passengers traveling during rush hour.

Metro carried 812,812 passengers June 3, 819,687 passengers on Thursday and 795,322 riders on Friday, all days when the Washington Nationals had home games.

Metro’s ridership record was set in June 2004, when 850,636 people traveled on the system the day of Ronald Reagan’s state funeral.

“We still have some room, but it will not be pleasant conditions,” Catoe said. “It’s going to be like a Nats game — sometimes a few trains will come before you can get on, and you have to just line up and wait until we can get you through.

“Commutes will be longer should the ridership get up that high,” he said. “It’s like highways — there is a point where there’s no additional capacity.”

The system could handle up to 950,000 or even 1 million passengers if more riders traveled during off-peak times, Catoe said.

Catoe said he may add more eight-car trains to the system by putting a limited number of the agency’s spare railcars into service, but that move could hinder Metro’s ability to maintain the cars.

Metro runs 830 railcars out of its stock of about 1,000 every day, keeping it in line with other transit agencies, which reserve about 20 percent of their stock.

“That’s so you can do preventative maintenance — change out brakes, fix door problems, air conditioning problems,” Catoe said. “If not, and you get into a crunch, you might have to operate those cars without air conditioning. I’m not willing to make that call yet.”

The agency’s “energy contingency plan” also includes pulling its fleet of about 70 old buses out of retirement.

 “We will keep those vehicles at least in working order for a longer period of time, so that if an emergency does come, we have those vehicles to put on the street,” Catoe said.

“They’re not the most efficient vehicles, they’re not the best air-quality vehicles, they’re not the best customer-experience vehicles, but if the choice is between not being able to get around and using one of those, people are going to use them.”

tluntz@dcexaminer.com

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