By Lena H. Sun
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 2, 2007
Metro's new general manager wants to get rid of the carpet in trains, brighten the lighting in stations and increase advertising in stations, trains and buses.
In many places, such mundane changes would be met with a shrug.
But this is the Washington area Metro, which has long prided itself on a dignified ambiance that is supposed to make it better than the average commuter system.
The changes are intended to help make the nation's second-busiest subway more modern and functional. As the system struggles to keep pace with growing demand, Metro's new top executive, John B. Catoe Jr., wants to focus the agency's limited resources toward moving people to and from work and away from some costly features that gave the subway a distinctive, first-class feel when it opened 31 years ago.
With ridership continuing to swell, the debate over those trade-offs is sharpening.
"We need to be open to change and willing to do some things differently while at the same time being mindful of the coherence that results from the original concept," said Chris Zimmerman, a Metro vice chairman who has served on the board for nine years.
"When the system opened, the idea was, 'How do we get people in suits and ties to get out of their nice cars and get on a train?' " he said. "Now we have 800,000 passengers showing up on a weekday."
Record numbers are taking the train. Four of Metro's all-time top 10 ridership days took place in June. On June 22, the night of a Washington Nationals baseball game, evening ridership between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m. was the largest in agency history.
Change, Catoe says, is inevitable, and he describes these as cosmetic. Dim stations need brighter, energy-efficient lighting. More advertising could generate much-needed revenue. Eliminating carpet would save money and allow mechanics to fix train wheels and brakes. High-quality art at station entrances and on walls would give passengers an experience beyond the ride itself. Dan Tangherlini, formerly Metro's interim general manager, started the push for brighter lights and no carpet last year.
No one is planning to alter the most distinctive feature of the system: the vaulted arches in the underground stations.
"We won't take away any of the majesty," Catoe said in an interview, calling the design of the stations "timeless and brilliant."
Still, change comes slowly to Metro, which several years ago hired a consultant and debated at length before deciding to alter the color scheme inside the rail cars.
"I'll probably run into trouble with the 'stewards of the system,' " Catoe noted.
Such stewards worry that adjustments, however minor, have the potential to alter Metro's identity. Unlike commercial transit systems that cashed in on every square foot of rentable space, or utilitarian ones that gave "passing notice to amenities," the Washington Metro was built as something different, wrote Metro architect Harry Weese.
As part of that approach, "a certain dignity and even elegance is sought after" to raise the image of mass transit, he noted. "In Washington, since this is the system owned by all the people of the United States, it is particularly important that no stigma of cheapness or of the bargain basement be attached to it. With this in mind, the designers of the system are working to capitalize on the best practice and produce something that is the highest state of the art."
Zachary M. Schrag, who wrote "The Great Society Subway: A History of the Washington Metro," said those at Metro haven't always been aware of its architectural significance. "It's one of the three great works of public architecture in Washington since World War II," he said, along with the National Gallery's East Wing and Dulles International Airport.
Even changing the color of the blinking platform edge lights at Metro Center from white to red was a "massive departure from the landmark architectural design," Schrag said. Metro is testing different-colored light-emitting diode bulbs that are more energy-efficient. Red means stop, and Metro wants to see whether that will keep riders from getting too close to the platform edge.
A few riders have noticed the change. "The red ones are ugly," said Mary Burke, who rides the Green and Red lines. "They look like the gates of Hell."
Many riders, while appreciative of Metro's unique architecture, say their priority is reliability. "It's a Cadillac system, and that's part of the problem," said Fred Marinucci, a Red Line commuter for 20 years. "It's hard to maintain a Cadillac system."
Still, the more time riders have spent on the New York subway, the more they appreciate everything that makes the Washington Metro different.
In New York, "it's not a question of red lights or white lights at the platform," Schrag said. "It's a question of how much gum you're standing in."
In Washington, carpet was a luxurious touch designed to lure suburbanites out of their cars. Carpet was supposed to signal to people that better behavior was expected, that "this is a nice train and don't mess it up," Schrag said.
But over time, the carpet itself has gotten messed up. In the winter, people track in salt and mud; in the summer, the humidity breeds mold "and little things grow in there, and it doesn't smell so good," Catoe said.
Metro will be testing different kinds of nonskid flooring this summer. Switching from carpet saves money because vinyl, for example, is easier to clean and doesn't need to be replaced as often. Carpet, on the other hand, is vacuumed once a week, shampooed every two months and replaced every five years; it costs Metro $5,200 to replace carpet in one car, officials have said. Two weeks ago, Catoe requested that carpet no longer be installed in older rail cars that are being overhauled. Riders will start seeing the transition in the fall, he said.
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."
View all comments that have been posted about this article.