Metro News Release

For immediate release: October 27, 2003

Metro to introduce its modernized Breda Series 2000/3000 Rail cars

First four cars to enter service on the Yellow Line

Starting today, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) placed into service its first four modernized BREDA series 2000/3000 rail cars on the Yellow Line between the Huntington and Mount Vernon Square/7th Street-Convention Center Metrorail stations. These modernized rail cars will contain several amenities for providing safe, attractive, convenient, and reliable service for all customers, including those with mobility requirements. As part of the rehabilitation program, the propulsion, heating and air conditioning units, and door systems are completely new. The rail cars also have a totally new interior color scheme to match the series 5000 rail cars. Highlights of these amenities include:∙ New interior color scheme " Chesapeake Sand, Colonial Burgundy, and Potomac Blue seat covers with a warm, red-gold carpet against white walls.∙ At either end of the car, an interior electronic next-station sign which also indicates the rail line color and the door-opening side.∙ Barriers between cars to prevent accidental entry by persons with visual disabilities or prevent falls in the unlikely event of an operator-assisted evacuation.∙ Lower car body weight to reduce power requirements and increase motor life.∙ Sensors outside the cab of each rail car to ensure that doors are opening on the correct platform side. " These modernized rail cars are part of a five-year project designed to upgrade and maintain the quality of passenger rail car service for the more than 650,000 customers who use the Metrorail system each week," said Richard A. White, Metro’s CEO. " I am extremely proud of everyone who worked, and continues to work on this project. And our customers will benefit from this project by traveling each day on equipment that has been restored to like-new conditions." At the end of 2000, Metro initiated a project to repair and rehabilitate its series 2000/3000 Breda rail cars. With many of these rail cars in service for nearly 20 years, it was necessary for Metro to move ahead with this rehabilitation project and to ensure the life span of these rail cars for another 20 years. Recognizing the need to upgrade its passenger equipment, the Metro Board of Directors awarded a contract to ALSTOM Transportation, Inc., to rehabilitate 364 Breda rail cars at a cost of $382.6 million. The first two pairs of series 2000/3000 Breda rail cars were shipped to the ALSTOM Facility in Hornell, New York, in February 2001 for disassembly and a detailed inspection. The cars were loaded by a ramp onto a flatbed trailer from Metro’s Alexandria, Va., rail yard for the trip to Hornell, New York. " The goal of rehabilitating these cars is extremely important to Metro," stated Fred Brink, Project Manager for the BREDA rehabilitation project. " By rehabilitating these cars, we will be able to extend the service life of these cars for another 20 years, reduce maintenance time on these cars while they are in service, increase their reliability, and increase the safety for our customers and maintenance personnel." As part of the rehabilitation, a vehicle monitoring system (VMS) was installed on the Breda 2000/3000 rail cars. The VMS’s main purpose is to monitor, analyze, and record data from each of the train’s major systems (propulsion, friction power, brakes, automatic train control, doors, HVAC, auxiliary power, and trainlines) to identify a defective circuit or a failed component, and to provide information to reduce maintenance trouble shooting. Another function of the VMS will be similar to that of the airlines industry’s black boxes, recording vital train commands for use by investigators in the event of an accident. The system will also provide a log of the vehicle operational performance for use in the analysis of accidents or incidents and information to reduce train recovery time. The VMS will also be compatible with the VMS installed on Metro’s series 5000 rail cars, so that mixed trains of 2000, 3000 and 5000 series cars will be transparent to the VMS in the leading married pair of the train, designated as the VMS Lead Unit, and all VMS functions will be available and fully operational. Additional enhancements to the series 2000/3000 rail cars include a new heating, ventilating, and cooling system; a complete rehabilitation and restructuring of the carbody; replacing the door systems to enhance service reliability; replacing the friction brake system; and enhancing the propulsion systems of the rail cars to interface with other rail cars in the service fleet. As of October 2003, 40 rail cars have been shipped to ALSTOM for their rehabilitation. The final rehabilitated cars will arrive on Metro property in December 2005. The cost of the actual project is within budget and the program is on schedule. " Right now, we are very pleased with the work that ALSTOM has done," said Mr. Brink. " This program will not only benefit Metro, but it will ultimately benefit our customers who will be using rail cars which should last for another 20 years." The Breda rail cars were originally manufactured more than 20 years ago by Breda Costruzioni Ferroviarie In Italy.

News release issued on October 27, 2003.