Photo by Victoria Pickering

As Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld aims to get the transit system “Back2Good,” he announced yesterday that all of its least-reliable cars are being permanently taken off the rails.

Metro is in the process of retiring its oldest railcars, the 1000-series—the original fleet that the system opened with in 1976. But it is now concurrently getting rid of its long-troubled 4000-series at the same time.

Officials announced in 2013 that they’d spend $215 million over the next five years to replace the 4000-series fleet, years ahead of when they originally scheduled to do so. They’ve now sped that timeline up even earlier, beginning to retire the railcars next week.

Wiedefeld says he’s committed to having both fleets out of passenger service by the end of this year. About half of the 1000-series has already been decommissioned.

According to Metro, railcar mechanical issues accounted for nearly two-thirds of delays in 2016. And Wiedefeld says removing the 1000-series and 4000-series cars will “drive down delays experienced by customers.”

Metrorail’s best performing cars, the 6000-series, are nearly four times more reliable than the 4000-series, the transit agency says.

The 4000-series cars began operating in 1991, and have plagued the system for years. In 2010, WMATA took all of the series’ cars out of service for repairs to stop the doors from automatically opening while trains were moving. Last November, the transit system announced that its no longer using them in the lead position after discovering a safety issue with the automatic train control system. Metro also acknowledges in the release that part of Monday’s terrible commute was caused by a disabled train outside of Foggy Bottom on Monday that included the 4000-series cars, as well as its 1000-series cars. Meanwhile, the new 7000-series cars continue to arrive.

Metro plans to move the first retired 4000-series car off its property next Wednesday. All of the cars will eventually be taken to Baltimore to be scrapped.