Your Metrorail trips in 2021 might get quicker – five seconds at a time

A Metro project quietly shelved last year is about to make an attempted comeback in 2021. The agency has a new plan to make its train doors open automatically at stations again, beginning on the Red Line in January, and coming to the rest of the system later in the year.

If this sounds like a repeat story, it’s not just you. Metro published two press releases in 2019 announcing a return to Automatic Door Operation (ADO), wherein doors of its Metrorail trains would automatically open when the train arrives into a station, rather than requiring the operator to press a button (or several) to get the doors to open.

But Metro shelved the ADO program in 2019 after just three days. Glitches caused the software not to work properly all the time: sometimes the doors failed to open automatically, and on some occasions, doors would close unexpectedly.

Automatic doors set to return to the Red Line in January

Metro documents obtained by Greater Greater Washington say the Red Line will be the first line to have ADO re-enabled on Jan. 3. The system ended up being re-enabled on Jan.10. “New software” by then will have been installed on all 7000-series trains on the line which fixes the issues uncovered in 2019.

When it returns, riders should notice the doors opening nearly right away when trains stop at stations, rather than the usual wait that ensues while the train operator pushes the buttons needed to open the train’s doors.

Some trains may end up being switched back to “manual” door mode, where the operator both opens and closes the doors, throughout regular rail service if the system fails or the doors don’t open as expected. Three stations especially have been giving Metro issues since the system was turned back on: Twinbrook, Friendship Heights, and Farragut North. ADO failures now mean train operators have to call into the rail control center to request permission to open doors manually.

If all goes well on the Red Line, Metro is targeting an early April launch of ADO system-wide on its other five rail lines. A safety certification process needs to be completed for all those additional lines before this launches, and all operators that don’t have current certifications for using ADO need to be trained as well.

WMSC spokesperson Max Smith said the commission had requested data and documents from Metro regarding Auto Doors, and that work is ongoing.“The WMSC is continuing discussions with WMATA regarding any outstanding potential safety concerns as WMATA determines what its plans are moving forward.

Built with automation in mind, ADO has been off since 2008

The ADO program dates back to the beginning of the Metrorail system. Trains operated by default with the feature enabled, as well as its companion, Automatic Train Operation, which managed the acceleration and braking of trains without operator intervention. Automation was built into the rail system from its beginning which allowed these features to work by centralizing much of rail dispatching and control into a single computerized facility for the entire rail system - the Rail Operations Control Center.

Over time, some of these automation features have been disabled for various reasons. ADO was disabled in 2008 when “electromagnetic interference” began causing some doors on trains to open on the incorrect sides. But disabling ADO caused another problem - train operators themselves were opening the doors either on the wrong side, or when their trains weren’t fully berthed on station platforms.

Metro tried to work around this issue with the “five second rule” put into place in 2012 which required operators to wait five seconds before opening the doors on their trains. Theoretically this would allow the operator time to look out their operating cab window, ensure they were on the correct side of the train, and then open the doors. That rule also increased the time it takes for trains to travel from station to station.

ADO testing hit a hiccup earlier this year

This latest attempt hasn’t been void of its own setbacks. Metro safety department personnel, as well as the Washington Metrorail Oversight Commission, which oversees Metrorail safety, were caught off-guard when they were informed that others within Metro had resumed testing the ADO software.

The WMSC learned last week that some individuals within Metrorail were planning to conduct a test of automatic door operations this month on the Red Line, without providing complete information to the WMSC or to WMATA’s Safety Department.

— Washington Metrorail Safety Commission (@MetrorailSafety) October 20, 2020

The WMSC and Metro’s Chief Safety Officer stopped the “uncoordinated plans to re-launch auto doors” and required that they get a “comprehensive briefing” and assurances that all safety processes were complete before testing was to resume.

It remains to be seen if and when Metro restores Automatic Train Operation which has even more benefit for riders - and the agency itself. Metro threw cold water on a short-term restoration of ATO last year, but with ADO moving forward perhaps there could be some changes afoot.