Metro officials are hoping that shifting a few seats and rearranging car’s handrails will make commuting on jam-packed rush-hour trains a little smoother as ridership continues to grow at record levels.

The transit agency unveiled two new designs for seating and handrails on trains — one of which was expected to go in service by Monday afternoon’s rush hour. Eight seats were removed from a recently rehabilitated car and replaced with bench seating. New seatback-to-ceiling, overhead and wall-mounted handrails have been added.

Metro officials said there are sure to be some moans and groans from customers accustomed to sitting. A third design, yet to be unveiled, will have as many as 16 fewer seats that will be replaced with folding seats at one end of the railcar and leaning rests at the other.

Metro officials said the removal of some seats is necessary as the system grows and the lack of a dedicated funding source limits the number of new cars that can be purchased.

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“We want to make it easier for people when it’s more crowded, more places to hang on,” Metro Board member Chris Zimmerman said. “We want to make it more convenient for boarding and alighting so people can get where they’re going faster.”

The plastic “wind screens” that typically separate the seating area from the doors were also removed in an effort to alleviate the traffic jam and loitering by the doors, officials said.

A second design installed on the new 6000 series railcars, which are expected to begin carrying passengers this fall, have more overhead and seatback-to-ceiling handrails and fewer wind screens. Some floor-to-ceiling poles and the four-seats sections at the center doors were also removed.

Getting people on and off the trains faster can save several seconds at each stop and help keep trains on schedule, Zimmerman said.

Metro will use cameras on several of the new trains to record passenger flow for six weeks. The results, coupled with passenger surveys, will be studied through early next year. More than a dozen cameras were installed on cars last year to determine the designs being tested.

mrupert@dcexaminer.com