Just five months ago, I was repeatedly warned by Metro staff members that the agency was considering enforcing its ban on bicycles on trains during rush hour.  However, at a committee meeting earlier today, Metro completely reversed course from their rumored plans a couple of a couple of months ago and announced a pilot program to remove a small amount of seating on some trains to make more room for bicycles and wheel chairs.

The seat removal trial program, announced on pages 5 and 6 of this document, could lead to over 1,000 seats being removed from the Gold, Blue, Green, Red and Purple Lines.  Initially seats will be removed on just a few trains, but if the new spaces are used by cyclists and wheel chairs we could see the program extended system wide.  The proposed breakdown of removed seats per train line if this plan is extended system wide is as follows:

Red/Purple Lines:

• Removal of an 2 Additional Seats per Car
• 24 Total Seats Removed Per 6 Car Train
• 416 Seats Removed From Fleet

Blue Line

• Removal of an 5 Passenger Seats per Car (2 Rows)
• 15 Total Seats Removed Per 3 Car Train
• 345 Seats Removed From Fleet

Green Line

• Removal of an 4 Passenger Seats per Car (2 Rows)
• 8 Total Seats Removed Per 2 Car Train
• 112 Seats Removed From Green Line

Gold Line

• Removal of an 4 Passenger Seats per Car (2 Rows)
• 8 Total Seats Removed Per 2 Car Train
• 96 Seats Removed From Green Line

New Vehicle Fleet of 50 For Various Lines

• 8 Total Seats Removed Per 2 Car Train
• 100 Seats Removed From Green Line

The Metro Board will vote on this proposal at next week’s Board Meeting.  If it passes the seat removal will commence in 30 to 60 days.

Image: David Galvan/Flickr