Metro plans platform screen doors for every Red Line station
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Image: Courtesy of WMATA presentation
Metro wants to add platform screen doors to its Red Line stations — a safety feature common on modern subway systems.
Why it matters: The barriers are designed to prevent people from falling onto the tracks. They're also a step toward greater automation of trains, allowing the trains to stop flush with platform doors.
State of play: The Red Line — Metro's oldest and busiest — "is the right line for starting systemwide modernization," the transit system says in a presentation.
- All 27 stations, indoor and outdoor, would be retrofitted with glass panel platform doors.
- Metro is using stations in Copenhagen and Honolulu as models, saying the barriers help "customers feel safer on crowded platforms."
- The proposal comes as the system reports an uptick in deaths this year. There've been 10 fatalities and five injuries in track incidents, and 84 trespasses, per Metro data as of earlier this month.
Zoom in: The circular lights on the platform edge — the ones that blink before a train pulls in — would be replaced with new indicator lights.
- New tactile strips would be placed in front of the panel doors for accessibility.
What's ahead: Metro will present the designs at its Thursday board meeting before making its case to federal design commissions in September.
- Implementation is slated for 2028.