Metro is running trains more often on the Red Line during rush hour starting Monday. Trains will now operate every eight minutes, up from every 10 minutes, during those peak periods.

The improvement is the result of the transit agency bringing more 7000-series trains back into operation in the long-running rail safety saga that began with a derailment in fall 2021. The new schedule will be in effect between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. weekday mornings, and between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. weekday afternoons. Trains will arrive every 10 minutes on the Red Line during other times.

Riders can expect “gradual service improvements” this winter and spring, according to Metro, as more 7000-series trains are cleared to get back on the tracks. However, the railcar shortage isn’t the only problem affecting service: Metro is also struggling with a lack of train operators and bus drivers — part of a national transit labor shortage.

In late October, Metro finally got the green light from safety regulators to begin bringing back more 7000-series train cars. This came almost exactly a year after a Blue Line derailment in which no injuries were reported. Later investigations found that wheel assemblies on the 7000-series trains were partly to blame. Wheels on some of the trains have been found to move a fraction of an inch farther apart than they’re supposed to be.

Metro’s new plan includes inspecting the wheels every four days, analyzing and submitting data regularly, and limiting where the older 7000-series trains are allowed to operate.

Elsewhere in the rail system, Green Line trains are running every 8 minutes, while Orange, Blue, and Silver Line trains are arriving every 15 minutes.