Metro News Release
For immediate release: February 21, 2006
Metro Trains Will Share One Track on the Red Line For the Installation of Tunnel Advertising Displays
Late night Red Line riders may experience 15-minute delays for the next six weeks while Metro installs advertising displays between the Metro Center and Judiciary Square Metrorail stations.
Starting Wednesday, February 22, Red Line trains will share one track between the Farragut North and Judiciary Square Metrorail stations for six weeks from 10 p.m. to closing, Sundays to Fridays for the installation of advertising displays along the tunnel walls between the Metro Center and Judiciary Square Metrorail stations.
In addition, on Friday, March 3, Saturday, March 4, Wednesday, March 22, Thursday, March 23, trains will share one track from 8 p.m. to closing.
Riders traveling on the Red Line during these periods should add at least 10 to 15 minutes of travel time in their schedule.
The advertising frames along the Red Line tunnel walls from Metro Center to Judiciary Square will produce images similar to 15 and 30 second video commercials without audio. Riders will see the images if they look out the train windows. The static images on the displays will appear to move as the train passes by them.
Similar tunnel advertising programs exist in transit systems in Atlanta, New Jersey, and Chicago.
Each tunnel ad display will generate $200,000 per year in revenue for Metro. Metro expects to have these initial ad frames in place by early April.
The tunnel advertising program is just one of a series of initiatives Metro announced two years ago as a way to generate additional revenues through advertising. Metro generates $74 million annually from non-passenger revenue and approximately 39 percent comes from advertising. In addition to tunnel advertising, Metro has unveiled ATMs inside Metrorail stations, ad-wrapped Metrorail trains and Metrobuses, advertising banners inside Metrorail stations, and featured headliner advertising on Metrobuses and Metrorail trains. In the next few months, Metro’s Board of Directors will discuss a proposal to install video monitors in Metrobuses and Metrorail trains.
News release issued on February 21, 2006.