Renderings give look inside new 8000 series Metro cars

WASHINGTON — Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is giving riders an idea of what the newest fleet of Metro trains will look like inside. 

Hitachi Rail announced last year that they plan to build a $70 million factory in Washington County, Maryland in order to produce the new 8000 series Metro trains. The 307,000-square-foot facility will be built on Greencastle Pike in Hagerstown.  

The new cars will have onboard Wi-Fi, digital direction signs, heated floors, regenerative braking, better ventilation and hi-def security cams.

Metro shared new renderings of the 8000 series cars' seating arrangements during a Riders Advisory Council meeting on April 12.

The renderings show a map of the cars interiors, which promise standing capacity for between 102 and 120 people. The trains come equipped with USB chargers and dedicated bike and stroller areas. 

Another image shows open gangways on the train. It's an idea Metro has been exploring since February. A gangway is a corridor that connects rail cars. Currently, all railcars have doors that separate the gangways. Open gangways, which are utilized in other metro areas, such as London, Toronto and Paris, remove the doors between railcars. 

WMATA hopes the open gangways would improve accessibility and allow for more people to ride on a train at once. Additionally, the agency believes the open corridors would be safe and more convenient for customers with strollers, luggage and bikes.  

The factory is slated to start delivering new rail cars late in 2025. Metro's already contracted for 256 of them, at a total cost of up to $2.2 billion.