Joelle Fredman
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Metro is retiring all 1000-series and 4000-series railcars six months ahead of schedule.
Metro originally aimed to replace the old and unreliable cars with new 7000-series cars by December 31, but announced today the cars will be off the tracks by July 1.
WMATA spokesman Dan Stessel said Metro is able to complete the replacements early because it pushed the railcar manufacturer to produce new cars at a faster rate than before.
As of next month trains will consist of the news cars and the most reliable of the older cars, namely the 2000, 3000 and 5000-series cars.
Stessel said the 7000-series cars will also replace the 5000-series cars in the future.
This initiative is part of Metro’s Back2Good program and is aimed to improve service and reduce delays.
The process of replacing the railcars began over a year ago.
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