(Photo by Jeffrey)

(Photo by Jeffrey)

The plot thickens: Metro swears that, despite what people on Twitter had been reporting, its 5000-series rail cars (one of the models with carpeting and red/blue seats) have in fact been retired.

On Friday October 12, the transit agency tweeted that it was the “end of the line” for the least reliable of its currently-running rail cars.

But as DCist reported on Tuesday, the announcement confused observant passengers, who quickly spotted 5000-series cars all over the place for days after the original announcement.

A sampling of Tweets:

Asked for clarification about the 5000-series, Metro asserted that it had retired the train cars, which are the most prone to breaking down or suffering other maintenance problems (after the already-retired 1000- and 4000-series ).

“There are no 5Ks in service. This is really good news. Be happy,” Metro spokesperson Dan Stessel told DCist via email.

Pointed to many tweets from passengers asserting otherwise, Stessel said that “while it is possible that one of our 8 rail yards let a 5K trainset out for service, they are not programmed or needed for regular service and I can tell you that there is not a single one on the railroad at this moment, nor has there been today.”

A cursory Twitter search appears to corroborate this—the latest passenger complaints about being inside a 5000-series train are from yesterday.

So there you have it, folks. According to the agency, it’s for real this time: no more 5000-series. (Of course, if you happen to find yourself in one, tweet at us).

Meanwhile, you can already start dreaming of the 8000-series.

Filed Under: 5000-series, metro, wmata,