WMATA wants to hear what you have to say about the possibility that bench seating may be introduced into new metrorail cars. The transit agency has posted a number of possible reconfigurations for the interior of rail cars. While monitoring commentary on the proposal, it seems that those in suburbs may view any railcar reconfiguration as an assault on their already long commutes. As one said on last week’s Metro LunchTalk Online:

Good for the city, bad for the suburbs — the decision would change Metro’s mission and turn it basically into an inner-city carrier, I believe.

But there is only one option, No. 5, that introduces “longitudinal seating” aka bench seating. If DCist says so, we think that removing one to two rows of seats facing each doorway may be a good compromise (more room near doors, but still some seats), something like the R44 and R46 rolling stock we think are used by some F trains and other trains that run on the Broadway Line (N,Q,R,W) in New York. What do you think? WMATA is considering many proposals.

In other transit news, WMATA’s Dick White answered the question we posed on the Metro LunchTalk Online forum regarding service on the 30-series crosstown buses. We were very happy to get a straightforward response to the problem of bunching and off-schedule buses. White indicated that the 30s, the District’s longest bus route, may be broken up into smaller segments. (We plan to go into greater depth on this and other transit-related matters in the near future.)