Inside the New Factory That Will Build DC's Metro Trains

"Have you ever been bored on the Metro, glanced around, and noticed a little badge indicating where the car was actually built? Many of the DC Metro's current trains were constructed by Kawasaki in Lincoln, Nebraska. Some older ones-which you might still encounter-originated in the unlikely location of Pistoia, a medieval city in Tuscany. No Metro cars have ever been manufactured in the Washington area."

"The huge building sits near a FedEx distribution center on what was until just a few years ago farmland. Inside, the space is an imposing expanse of concrete that's crisscrossed with railroad tracks, allowing the cars-in-progress to roll along their assembly lines and, when complete, out a giant door in the side of the building. The factory can produce about 20 cars a month, with humans and robot arms working in a carefully orchestrated dance."

"The ribbon-cutting was rather theatrical-a pair of huge curtains dropped amid billows from a fog machine, revealing a prototype of the new brown-and-­silver Metro car that will be made in the factory. Its exterior looked like a major update-slicker and more muscular than the previous design, with a brown stripe that evokes the oldest Metro trains. The interior appeared pretty similar to the current 7000 series, but with some important differences:"

A $100 million Hitachi factory in Hagers­town will assemble 8000-series DC Metro cars beginning in 2028. WMATA has ordered 256 cars under a $2.2 billion contract that requires local manufacturing. The 307,000-square-foot plant sits near a FedEx distribution center on former farmland and can produce about 20 cars per month. Production will combine human labor, robot arms, and technologies such as Spot, a Boston Dynamics robotic inspection "dog" for nighttime checks. A prototype revealed a sleeker brown-and-silver exterior and an interior largely similar to the 7000 series with some seating changes.

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