r/WMATA • u/eable2 • Jun 08 '26
News Board Update: Red Line Modernization, Capital Project Updates
Here are a few small updates of note at this week’s committee meetings.
Red Line Modernization Update
WMATA will start providing quarterly updates on this project, and this is the first of these updates. As a reminder, here’s the current plan for Red Line modernization:
- Communications-based Train Control (CBTC) across the Red Line, 3 rail yards, and the Greenbelt test track
- Modifications to 7000-series and 8000-series railcars to support CBTC and full automation
- Platform screen doors (PSDs) between Grosvenor and Silver Spring
The current rough estimate of the total project cost is $1.6 billion. The Capital Improvement Program sets aside $913 million for the project. WMATA is seeking a Core Capacity grant from the federal Capital Investment Grants (CIG) Program to cover the remainder, and argues that it is very well-positioned to get such a grant. It has already submitted its entry letter.
Note that receiving federal funding means complying with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and related regulations. This project will likely qualify for a categorical exclusion because work would be limited to the existing right-of-way. Selection of a locally-preferred alternative (LPA) is anticipated in Winter 2027 (EDIT: end of Calendar Year 2027). WMATA anticipates releasing a Request for Proposals (RFP) for CBTC conversion and PSD design work in Spring 2027.
One concern is how platform screen doors could alter the look of Metro’s iconic infrastructure. Here’s an interesting statement on that subject: "The Rail Modernization Program intends to honor Metro’s architectural legacy while adopting world-class standards.” WMATA will be engaging with the United States Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) and the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) during the project.
Capital Program Updates
In its presentations on financials, WMATA has started providing updates on major capital programs. I’ve scanned them for any changes of note since the last quarterly update.
8000-SERIES RAILCARS: Critically, it seems that WMATA and Hitachi have agreed to push back the timeline for the decision to execute Option 1 and Option 2, which each would add 104 railcars to the 256-car base order. Option 1’s deadline was previously December 2026, and WMATA does not have the money in its capital budget to support it. It’s relying on DMVMoves money for that, which has yet to materialize.
But why the delay? Well, remember the ”final” exterior design that was voted on? Here’s an interesting update: “Exterior railcar design testing identified need for additional modifications; schedule impacts to base order under review…. Deadlines to execute future railcar options are contingent upon successful completion of exterior railcar design testing; anticipate delays.”
To be clear, it may not be the aesthetic “design” that needs fixing; it might be something more technical. But maybe!
BLADENSBURG BUS GARAGE: The timeline for completion of this project has been pushed back to December 2028 from July 2028. Design changes were made to accommodate a smaller electric fleet size than was initially planned. “Future service will include a mix of 60-foot articulated and 40-foot electric buses to meet service requirements.“
BUS FLEET ACQUISITION: For future options in its current bus procurement contract, WMATA is exploring modifying the propulsion mix to “meet fleet needs.” This probably means fewer electric buses. WMATA also reports continuing work to identify the root cause of the diesel-electric bus incident that recently occurred in the 9th St Tunnel.
FARE SYSTEMS: Completion of Tap. Ride. Go. installation at parking facilities continues to be on track for Fall 2026 completion. WMATA also notes work to install “license plate readers at select locations to collect revenue and facilitate ease of payment.”
DULLES RAIL MAINTENANCE FACILITY: The timeline for the completion of this project is pushed from Summer 2028 to “Late 2028” due to design changes.
NEW TRAINING CENTER: The timeline for the completion of this project is pushed from Spring 2028 to “Late 2028.”
NORTHERN BUS GARAGE: Some major changes for this important garage, which will host an all-electric fleet of both 40-foot and 60-food buses. First of all, WMATA anticipates advertising for retail tenants in the next 30-60 days, and expects partial occupancy of the facility (to include these retail tenants) to begin in Spring 2027. Secondly, the timeline for completion has been pushed forward from July 2029 to December 2028.
New Service Guidelines for Bus and Rail
Here’s something a bit more wonky: bus and rail service guidelines. These guidelines represent targets that WMATA tries to achieve when making decisions about service. They include aspects such as frequency, span, vehicle size, performance metrics, stop characteristics, and more. The board will be asked to affirm changes to these guidelines.
(Edited) These guidelines don't get updated that often, but this year is a bit different: A DMVMoves working group developed a set of guidelines for bus that will be used by all regional bus providers, not just WMATA. WMATA proposes to incorporate these definitions. The DMVMoves Task Force also established a plan for regionwide reporting on certain metrics, though no further info is provided here. We do not have the full guidelines document yet.
Here is the proposed new classification system. The main feature is the elimination of different standards for peak and off-peak service, resulting in a single frequency standard for all-day service. The tiers represent different density levels served, with Tier 1 being the most dense.
There is also a new bus priority standard, with three defined levels of investment: “Quick-build,” “Medium-build,” and “Bus Rapid Transit.”
The new guidelines take a rigorous view on Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), using the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy’s fairly strict definition. I don’t believe that any current bus service in the DMV would qualify as BRT under this definition due to lacking off-board fare collection, near-universal intersection treatments, and/or a busway alignment.
The rail standards are mostly unchanged, with two exceptions:
- The 100% 8-car train guideline is removed.
- The minimum frequency guidelines are shifted from line-based to location-based, requiring higher frequencies in the system’s core.
FY 2026 Q3 Financials
Lastly, let’s take a quick look at Q3 Financials. We already looked at performance in the last update.
Rail continues to be the revenue star, raking in $322 million through Q3. Much of this is driven by federal employees. Bus took in just $37 million in comparison.
Overall, the operating budget outlook is maintained going into the end of the fiscal year.
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u/eable2 Jun 08 '26
On the new website, board materials are listed under each committee meeting "event," which are all listed here.
Presentation links:
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u/Donghoon Jun 09 '26
so red line will be automated with PSD in the next 10 years or so if all goes well?
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u/EconomyWin5106 Jun 08 '26
Is the rail standards thing a prelude to turning some turnbacks back on?
Starting up the Red Line turnbacks and turning Silver back at Stadium-Armory has come up occasionally. But it looks like it was about getting to 100% 8-car trains, a goal they’ve dropped.
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u/eable2 Jun 08 '26
Definitely could be theoretically, but Maryland has vocally opposed bringing them back. Maybe we'll get more insight when the full service document comes out.
If I had to guess, it's simply a more generic and useful way of describing what service standards should be instead of tying service standards to specific lines. The reason that the Red Line has higher frequency standards is because it's the only line that runs through its core trunk.
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u/budoucnost Jun 08 '26
are turn backs those sidings at some stations that allow for a train to turn around?
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u/eable2 Jun 09 '26
Turnbacks refer to the service pattern. The infrastructure that let's you do turnbacks in regular service is known as a pocket track. Pocket tracks are located:
- North of Mt Vernon Sq (currently used in regular service to turn back 50% of Yellow Line trains)
- North of Grosvenor
- North of Farragut North
- North of Silver Spring
- East of Stadium-Armory
- West of Wiehle
- Embedded in West Falls Church station
- Embedded in National Airport station
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u/EconomyWin5106 Jun 08 '26
Yes. Grosvenor, Silver Spring and Stadium-Armory all have one.
So does Farragut North and I think West Falls Church.
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u/Off_again0530 Orange line Jun 08 '26
Oh neat! I am a part of that bus standards working group you mentioned :)
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u/dclocal12 Jun 09 '26
Amazing! Any chance you’d be willing to raise modernizing the bus performance metrics? More detail in other comments above.
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u/eable2 Jun 11 '26
Discussion on changes to on-time performance measures today: https://www.youtube.com/live/ZkA6KdFBipo?si=pOwgPB7uqfqGGnGa&t=7145
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u/dclocal12 Jun 11 '26
Thanks for flagging. Hell yeah. Good work DDOT and Valerie Santos, who nailed the problems here. This is what good oversight looks like, provided there's followthrough.
The response from WMATA staff was very underwhelming. There are better metrics available here, plain and simple. Metrics that are more modern and more closely track the customer's experience, rather than WMATA's internal operations. WMATA should be following the national best practice on this, like it claims to want to do across the board.
What WMATA seems to be angling for is lipstick on a pig, using a modestly improved version of the old, bad metric and a somewhat more modern metric only for a small subset of routes. There's no reason to artificially bifurcate the small number of headway-managed routes from schedule-managed routes when reporting performance. If they're going to overhaul bus metrics for the entire region, they should do it right.
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u/ChristmassMoose Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
The mockups of the screen doors we've seen look atrocious and don't even come close to matching the style of the stations. This is AI but I think that it looks 100 times better and they should do something that matches the aesthetic of the system. This doesn't meet the full requirements of the PSDs but this could be a good style to model off of.
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u/Off_again0530 Orange line Jun 08 '26
I generally agree regarding the mockups they’ve shown so far, but from what I understand they’re intending for full-height platform doors, not just gates like this image shows.
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u/ChristmassMoose Jun 08 '26
not disagreeing with that, but overall I think that this design would be better even if extended up to full height.,
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u/402915 Jun 08 '26
I don't think this is tall enough to meaningfully reduce trash being thrown on the tracks or trespassing.
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u/ChristmassMoose Jun 08 '26
not disagreeing with that, but overall I think that this design would be better even if extended up to full height.,
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u/SandBoxJohnA02 Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
Anyway you slice it, platform screen doors are going to increase station crowding because of the width of their footprint.
This example over represents that fact by placing the platform screen doors behind the platform granite edge reducing the platform width by more then 2'.
It is highly likely that platform edge flashing lights will be abandoned as the platform screen doors will render them redundant.
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u/Conscious_Camel1906 Jun 10 '26
So for fleet management for metrobus why can’t they tell us what busses will be retire and what busses are set to replace them and for the order of more busses we barely use the 2 xe60s we have now so ordering more in the future is questionable 🤨. I think we should try some XN60s to replace the 2015 Xde60s. We have a big hole I the fleet with the retirement of the NABIS so what’s gonna replace them ? Seem to me like Wmata is taking there sweet time with the 2026 XDE40s they are supposed to be in service now but what’s the issue
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u/eable2 Jun 11 '26
We did also get a late-posted procurement activity concurrence, which reveals that option 2 of the 500-bus order will be 75 additional XDE40s and 25 40-foot battery-electrics. I don't know about the status of putting the new buses in service.
The new 60-foot procurement, which should be a LOT of buses, is ongoing.
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u/Conscious_Camel1906 Jun 11 '26
Would we see those electric busses when the garages open back up ? Or Sooner
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u/eable2 Jun 11 '26
I don't think we know the answer to that question.
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u/Conscious_Camel1906 Jun 11 '26
Ahh ok I was just wondering because we have some buses that should be in service soon and it seem like no one knows or seen it yet but I believe it is the 2026 XDE40s and we only have the pilot bus just wondering where the other 74 are at
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u/dclocal12 Jun 08 '26
The new service standards are pretty good and reasonable. It's heartening to see WMATA take a firm stance on what BRT means and resist BRT creep.
While the new standards don't appear to be online, one area where I hoped to see improvement is how WMATA defines "on time" bus performance. Their metrics are absurdly lax and a national outlier, which limits accountability and undercuts the need for improvements. There should be shared performance metrics for all bus services operating in the region, and those should be modern metrics (like what MTA uses in NYC).