Feeling a little packed in on your morning commute on Metrorail? It’s not that everyone around is getting fatter or that Metro has been secretly shaving a few inches off of the tops and sides of their rail-cars — there really are more people using the system, and many more to come.

According to an article in today’s Examiner, Metro has seen a rise in ridership over the last ten years due to development around certain stations, and expects 344 million riders in 2007, 20 million more than today. Certain stations have seen surprising increases in use, notably Gallery Place, whose use has increased 161 percent over the last ten years.

For those of us who faithfully ride the rails, we can only hope Metro is thinking ahead on this one.