Red Tide Expands in Metrorail System

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FOR YEARS AND YEARS, commuters have been riding Metrorail, probably the best example of brutalist architecture in the nation's capital. Advertising has been limited, musicians have been barred and the color scheme has been brown and concrete gray. Pretty drab. But just as sanctioned performance artists have been introduced into the system and Metro's general manager wants to expand advertising, Metrorail is getting much more lively.

As we've noted, Metro has been expanding the use of flashing red platform-edge lights across the system. First, they went in at Gallery Place-Chinatown, at right. And recently, they've popped up at stations like Metro Center, L'Enfant Plaza and Fort Totten. As recently observed at Metro Center, the lower level Blue and Orange line platform has taken on a reddish hue in parts. So has the lower-level platform at L'Enfant Plaza. When we noticed that Fort Totten acquired the new lights last week, we waited with anticipation for a train to arrive at the lower level platform for the Green and Yellow lines. Why?

For those who don't know, Fort Totten is a unique station architecturally. It was built halfway into a hillside with the other half sitting in an open cut, covered by curved canopies. We thought that the so-called "gull-wing" canopies, seen on the above-ground portion of the Red Line platform, would be bathed in red light when the platform edge lights started flashing, creating an interesting architectural effect.

But that was not the case. At Fort Totten last week, you could hardly tell the difference between the solid red and the flashing red. The lights were dim. So any hope for a splash of color was quickly quashed.

If only Metro would install the red lights at Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan. Then there'd be something to distract commuters from the remains of weekend vomit that has stained the granite platform edge.

» "Ready or Not: Here Come Metro's Performers" [Free Ride/Express]
» "Metro Soon to Be Draped in Commerce" [DCist]
» "Metro Center's Underbelly Is All Red" [Free Ride/Express]
» "Coming Soon: More Red Platform-Edge Lights" [Free Ride/Express]
» "Fort Totten (Lower Level)" [Schumin Web Transit Center]

Image courtesy WMATA