Metro Customers May Notice Doors Opening Faster On Monday

On Monday, customers may notice doors opening faster on some Blue, Orange, Silver, Green and Yellow line trains as Metro begins certifying operators who have been trained to use the Auto Doors function. The certifications will happen over the next few weeks. This is the second stage of rollout for the system. Metro began Auto Door use on the Red Line last December and has had “more than 750,000 successful, safe, and faster door openings.”

According to WMATA, the feature enables doors to open automatically when the train stops at the platform. Not only is it safer and more reliable, but it also eliminates the delay of operators manually opening the doors. After operators are certified, the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission will review the certifications and decide whether to grant concurrence on using the feature across the entire Metrorail system.

Currently, operators are required to open and close train doors manually. They’re instructed to stick their head out the window, take a few seconds to verify they are opening the doors on the correct side of the train, and then press a button to open the doors. The process can take up to 15 seconds and happens more than 20,000 times a day across the system. 

With Auto Doors, signals at the platform tell the train which side to open automatically when it arrives at each station platform. Operators will still put their head out of the window to make sure everyone has exited or boarded safely before manually closing the doors. 

Metro worked closely with the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission to move forward with this step in its automation program. We thank them for their collaboration.