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Ambiance Of Metro Might Take Sharp Turn
Dim stations need brighter, energy-efficient lighting, says Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr., who calls his proposals for changes cosmetic.
(By Katherine Frey -- The Washington Post)
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Down the road, Metro might switch from solid-colored train seats to a single multi-colored design to save money. Dave Kubicek, the new chief mechanical officer in charge of rail car engineering, design and maintenance, said it doesn't make sense for Metro to stock more than 90 seat configurations in different colors. Newer cars have cushions in burgundy, blue and sand; the older cars have orange and brown.
Catoe's effort to expand advertising, which the board approved Thursday, is even more controversial. He wants to see banners inside stations, graphics on the floors, and ads on blank platform pylons, rail car ceilings and Metro's Web site.
How much advertising to allow has so divided the Riders' Advisory Council that the group hasn't been able to agree on a position, said Chairman Michael Snyder. "A lot of people think Metro is a shrine or monument that shouldn't be plastered with advertisements," he said. Others think that as long as advertising is controlled, they would rather see more advertising than higher fares.
The Metro board, said member Peter Benjamin, want to minimize intrusion into a system "of beautiful lines and beautiful style." He was assured by Catoe at Thursday's meeting that the advertising could be changed if board members did not like it.
Former Metro board member Cleatus Barnett, 81, who served for 32 years, fought hard to preserve Metro's aesthetics. He was so loyal to the original color scheme of the rail cars -- orange, gold and brown -- that when Metro bought new cars with an updated interior of red, white and blue, one seat in the rear of each new car was upholstered in yellow in deference to Barnett.
In an interview from Pensacola, Fla, where he retired to several years ago, Barnett warned against too much advertising. Metro shouldn't "look so gaudy you want to turn your head away," he said.
In the past, Metro has found compromises that took note of design. During the late 1990s, the board, after a long debate, chose more expensive textured brick-red ceramic tile instead of yellow plastic bumpy strips to give warning underfoot to blind riders that they were near platform edges. The strips were rejected in part because some board members thought they would spoil the design. They would have been placed over Metro's signature granite edge.
"I don't think Metro should be frozen in time," Schrag said. "I just think that in making these decisions, respect for the original design should be one of the factors."
