Riding Isn't Believing for Orange Line Commuters

Metro's experiment running eight-car Orange Line trains into the District during the morning rush is getting mixed reviews from passengers, many of whom say the trains may be longer but so are their commute times.

Since January, Metro has dropped two Orange Line trains and run some extended, eight-car trains during the morning rush in an effort to ease congestion and cut delays, particularly at the Rosslyn tunnel. Blue and Orange line trains often back up at the tunnel while taking turns for the trip under the Potomac into the District.

Metro officials said that the strategy is moving passengers through the tunnel more smoothly and that delays are more likely to be linked to the rising number of riders. If the trial works, they would like to use fewer but longer trains throughout the system.

But halfway through the six-month pilot program, many of the more than 40 commuters interviewed on two consecutive Mondays said that little has changed, that stop-and-go rides in crowded cars remain the norm. More than a dozen people cited longer waits on the platform and overall slower service.

"I can count on five fingers the number of times we've had long delays in the past week," said Deanna Renko, 64, while waiting for a train at Clarendon Station about 8:40 a.m. on a recent Monday.

In recent months, she said, she has been waking up 15 minutes earlier so she can get to work on time at a law office near McPherson Square Station.

Part of the problem, she said, is the increased time between trains. On that particular morning, four minutes passed while passengers packed the platform around her. When the eight-car train finally pulled up, she tried unsuccessfully to squeeze into a car and then dashed down to the next one, where she had better luck.

One station away, at Court House, as trains crowded with passengers rumbled through shortly before 9 a.m., many people didn't even venture toward the open doors. Ben Mayberry, 39, a consultant, said he has started leaving his Arlington house earlier because he anticipates that several overstuffed trains will pass him before he can board.

Metro officials said reports of slower trips coincided with record ridership. Average weekday ridership in April was more than 739,000, and two days that month were among Metro's top 10. Officials said that the cherry blossoms, as well as high gas prices, helped drive up ridership but that there were no other special events.

Metro's analysis of the Orange Line experiment over the past three months shows that trains have been a little slower during the morning peak, said Steven A. Feil, chief operating officer for rail.

He said trains were waiting an average of 11 more seconds at each station. It's too soon, he added, to know whether that has to do with a change in the number of cars.

Average delays varied from station to station. At Court House, trains idled about 20 seconds longer; at Metro Center, the average was 27 seconds longer.

During any morning rush, when Metro transports nearly 60,000 inbound passengers on the Orange Line, service can slow, said spokesman Steven Taubenkibel.

On Monday, an eight-car train leaving Vienna at 6:13 a.m. arrived at New Carrollton in 57 minutes, exactly on schedule. But two hours later, at 8:18 a.m., during the peak of the rush, an eight-car train took an extra 10 minutes to reach the end of the line.

Feil said running fewer but longer trains helps avoid backups in the Rosslyn tunnel by providing an extra minute and a half between scheduled trains. But, he said, any extra time that the train sits at a station cuts into that cushion.

Feil said Metro is waiting for the full six months' worth of data before making definitive assessments.

Metro hopes to have eight-car trains on all lines during peak hours once new cars are added to the fleet this summer, he said. By December, Metro wants to run 20 percent of rush-hour trains with eight cars. The number could rise to 33 percent by December 2007 and 50 percent by December 2008.