Just curious (and in keeping with Earth Day): any chance that these rubber flooring options are made from recycled materials, like old tires? That would be an especially good idea. (Which means the answer is probably no.)

"It looked like it might get slick when wet -- one member of the Rider's Advisory Council was ready to test a bottle of water on it -- but the manufacturer says, no. Actually, the composition makes for good traction when wet."

So nobody tested it?

Also, I wonder, do they all cost the same amount?

No, of course no one tested it. That's what the six month-long study is for. Then eventually, after debating for several more months, they'll decide to implement the change(s) slowly, which will take a few years, per Metro SOP. Then they will discover that it is indeed slippery when wet (a la the floor tiles in the Metro stations, which look SO fantastic and so much better than in NYC but oops, are slippery and offer no traction when wet.) Then they'll decide to go with carpet again for "safety reasons."

Why don't they do something about Metrostink?

Poster @ 4:21 p.m., you are soooo right.

Metro should take every proposed flooring, and test it, beat it, dump stuff on it, drag weights across it, light it on fire, etc. etc. to help determine the winner. But the manufacturer says, "don't" so consequently no one will actually know how it holds up, until someone slips, breaks their neck and there is a giant lawsuit.

Then Metro will spend another pile to go back to carpeting.

I'm still marveling at how Metro became "ADA compliant" by putting textured flooring in on the platform edge of only SOME of the stations. In other words, for people who are blind and are using one of the stations without the textured flooring, good luck.

Everything they do, they do it in the dumbbest possible way.

They really need to do something about the brown ceramic tiles, which are slick as ice when it rains!

I don't care what color it is. I just want the moldy, mildewy, stinky carpet that literally makes me ill because of allergies to mold and mildew out of the Metro cars. Find the least slippery flooring by testing it and go with it. DON'T depend on what the manufacturing company says, Test it yourself!!!

I propose testing the floor by spraying a lite mist on it and then make someone wearing worn out and escalator-mangled Crocs walk across it while bleeding profusely from the toe.

How often are they going to sweep and mop the floors? Once a month? haha...this is going to be disgusting = nyc subway. I noticed on one train yesterday that they put the floor right at the entrance of the doors but kept the carpet for the rest of the train. That would solve a lot of the wear and tear problems.

Somehow NYC subways manage to have doors that work properly. Just sayin'...

(and the carpet in Metro isn't exactly pristine either, especially as it approaches the end of its short lifetime or goes through one winter.)

First off, I completely agree that Metro should do it's own testing. Of course the manufacturer is going to say it's perfect.

The question that really comes to mind regarding the granite composite flooring is how heavy it is. Just presume for a moment that the weight of the rubberized flooring weighs 500 pounds per rail car; follow the presumption that granite (which is normally heavier) weighs 1000 pounds per rail car. If 1000 pounds of flooring is added to each train, that's between 6000-8000 extra pounds.

I recall Metro stating that they don't have sufficient power to run all 8 car trains, and even the upgrades they're doing will only allow 50% of the trains to be 8 cars. With an extra 8000 pounds per 8 car train (if my weight estimate is right), I'd think that would require even more power. Of course, then we can hear that Metro won't be running the longer trains because they don't have sufficient electric current.

how about weight limits on passengers?

I agree with "April 23, 2008 9:19 AM ". It would be nice to replace those brown tiles inside the stations with something that doesn't turn into a slip-n-slide whenever there's a light rain. Walking into the Greenbelt station, for example, is treacherous on rainy days.

As for the cars, I don't mind what they put down, as long as it's kept relatively clean and it's not slippery (wet or dry).

Other flooring consideration should be given to flammability & off gassing during heat or flame.

Slight related was the penatration ability of debris underneath. Yrs ago Metro had two incidents in close time proximity where a piece of shrapnel from a compressor motor underneath (series wound motor over speed from broken coupling)was propelled upward through the flooring & one of the two had the metal imbedded into the ceiling. Thank God the bad one had no passengers in the car at the time!
Metro tried hard to keep it quite while they ran the cars & put scatter shields over the motor area. Of course this repair/modification was not made overnight & was a risk to the passengers for a period! The Post did find out eventually & it was news!
Lightning

On sufficient power subject, Metro was designed for future track side energy storage. I think it was supposed to be a system of spinning fly wheels that stored train power given back into the power system from braking. That stored energy was then taken by that train or another in the system for accelerating. I have not heard anything about METRO implementing this system!
Lightning
Lightning

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