WMATA - Metro's latest signage efforts

Hi all,

I just wanted to start a post on Metro's latest signage effort, which runs the gamut from more PIDs, electronic screens, and good old fashioned metal signage. L'Enfant Plaza is a testing ground for all of these efforts. On my most recent visit, a new PID pylon was being installed on the upper level platform so that customers can more easily see it without needing to peer so far down the platform. (I'm curious to see if it will use the old fashioned models, those we see at Silver line stations, or the latest LCD screens.) L'Enfant has also received those freestanding LCD screens on the lower level that rotate between ads, announcements, and Metro's map. Finally, I did not see this, but a recent post from the GM shows Metro's current experimentation with adding directional information to its metal signs. https://x.com/wmataGM/status/1702132776953057304?s=20 OH, I should also add that most of the stations I've used new have the bright yellow stickers in prominent locations indicating which is track 1 vs 2. I think that's a long overdue update because the stickers on the 3rd rail are often impossible to read due to grime.

Maybe it's me, but I find it very curious how much signage has been added to tell customers how to reach IAD when there is no such similar effort for DCA. Yes, I understand one is an airport newly served by Metro, but still...

One possible "explanation" for why there are more IAD signs than DCA signs is that DCA is a much older (and closer) station than IAD. As a result, more people know how to get to it. (Or Metro just hasn't bothered putting up DCA signs.) Having DCA signs would still be very nice.

Sidenote: I was at King Street Old Town recently and the station sign still said the Yellow Line ended at Greenbelt. While I wish this was the case, it hasn't been true for more than half a decade!

The Yellow Line was re-extended to Greenbelt in 2019, and was cut back in May 2023.

JDC wrote: ↑Thu Sep 14, 2023 6:28 am Maybe it's me, but I find it very curious how much signage has been added to tell customers how to reach IAD when there is no such similar effort for DCA. Yes, I understand one is an airport newly served by Metro, but still...

I'd have to agree... but I would also add both IAD and DCA to the maps. What if nobody knew DCA was the code for Regan National... or what the hell airport codes were?

As an experiment, it gathers data. But from L'Efant plaza, I would expect DCA next to the Yellow line going South.

As of this morning, new signs have been installed on the upper lowel (Green/Yellow lines) platform at L'Enfant.
But they forgot to remove the old PID signs.

I hope they install new signs on the lower platform (blue/orange/silver lines)

Found a detailed press release with details about the new PIDs. https://www.wmata.com/service/status/de ... lation.cfm

In short, 3 big transfer stations are having the old PIDs replaced with the large LCD screens, AND also additional PIDs are being added to new pylons or hanging from the ceiling.

Airport codes: I haven't traveled by air domestically for decades, living in NJ, then Virginia, and now Pa. I couldn't have named the Newark airport code if my life depended on it, and when I started seeing EWR on the train departure board at Trenton, I had no idea what it meant.

District-area residents usually prefer naming without the Congress-instituted "Reagan" naming. If you haven't traveled by air in decades, you don't need to know. The airport code is printed/displayed in large letters a number of times in the process of booking and using a ticket. This is a non-issue, analogous to someone complaining that they don't know why their commuter train to Swarthmore suddenly says "Wawa" on it, a town they've never been to or heard of.

Passed through L'Enfant today and got a chance to see the new LCD screens on the lower level, which hang from the ceiling. Interestingly, they are more narrow than the regular LCD screens (and also narrower than the old PID screens) and only show the arrival time for 2 upcoming trains. Not sure what the thinking was on that. Maybe minimum height clearance? One of these new LCD screens actually blocks the view of an old PID pylon screen so I can only assume it's still a work in progress.

I haven't flown domestically in decades. Overseas, yes. But my point was that trains on the Trenton departure board suddenly started having EWR appended, and I thought it might be important information, but I couldn't guess what it was. I worked in northern Virginia and Washington for about 24 years, and I kept calling National Airport what I had known it as since I was young. Kind of like I've never called 6th Av. in Manhattan "Avenue of the Americas." Or like the Pennsylvania Railroad being unwilling to change its name for the North River, which is why we still hear about the North River tunnels.

I think the term North River is still used in maritime circles, where "draymen" still pick up cargo from the piers, although U. S. Customs regulations call them cartmen. And Manhattan piers, such as remain, are designated North River and East River. Tradition rules.