Metro board to vote on plan to fully automate Red Line
Metro’s Board of Directors is expected to endorse a budget that calls for full automation of the system’s oldest line, the Red Line.
The Red Line opened to the public in March 1976 with just five stops in central D.C. It now spans 32 miles and includes 27 stations.
Metro documents regarding the proposal state that the Red Line’s “aging system presents challenges with safety, reliability, capacity and efficiency.” The documents state that trespassing incidents and human error “are difficult to mitigate with current system design.”
Under the plan, $913 million would go toward Red Line improvements that Metro said will put the system “on the path to providing world-class transit.”
There are plans to seek federal funding in the form of grants that could support the project. The details are part of the proposed FY 2027-32 Capital Improvement Plan.
The issue will come up for a vote by the Metro Board of Directors on Thursday morning.
Modernizing the Red Line would include installing platform doors that would open only when trains pull into stations. Platform doors are currently used in transit systems in other countries, and closer to home; they operate similarly to those at Dulles International Airport’s AeroTrain.
Metro officials said the doors would make stations safer and allow for speedier train arrivals and departures.
Automation could also extend to eliminating the need for train operators — a move that has caused concern among the union representing rail operators.
Benjamin Lynn with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 told WTOP, “The union isn’t opposed to progress. Progress can come in many forms.”
ATU Local 689 represents approximately 8,500 WMATA employees.
“The union thinks that step is premature — that WMATA should focus first on insuring the system is at a state of good repair,” he added.
Lynn said there’s roughly $15 billion of needed repairs that have already been identified.
“Job loss is a concern of the union,” Lynn said. “We’re also really concerned about what full automation without a human operator would mean for the safety of the riding public.”
Lynn said that the union would be part of the conversations about exactly what full automation would mean.
The automation of the Red Line is the first step toward a system-wide modernization, according to Metro.