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Metro To Buy New Rail Cars

March 23, 2010
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By David Schultz

Several hundred new rail cars could be coming to the D.C. region soon, if the Metro Board approves a plan on Thursday to purchase them.

They would be top-of-the-line 7000 series cars and they would go towards replacing Metro's older 1000 series cars, which have been in use since Metro's opening in 1976. The Red Line train that collided with another train last June, killing nine people and injuring dozens more, was comprised entirely of 1000 series cars.

The new cars will cost at least $2 billion, and those funds will come out of Metro's capital fund. That's separate from it's operating budget, which covers day-to-day expenses.

There is a plan currently on the table to take money out of the capital fund and use it to fill a shortfall in the operating budget. Metro Board Member Cathy Hudgins, who represents Northern Virginia, says this could affect the purchase of the new cars.

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