WMATA has heard the criticism that its Metro stations are too dark, and will use Bethesda station as a pilot to test new brightening concepts. They’ll also test new features designed to speed passengers through more quickly, improve wayfinding, and increase safety.

Yesterday WMATA unveiled plans for its Metro station of the future. They are using Bethesda because it’s an underground station with a center platform, which makes it the hardest type to illuminate. If they can make Bethesda bright, they can do it anywhere.

Here are the 6 main improvements they’ll test:

New wall-mounted lights along the length of the platform, and new information pylons with larger signs and more real-time displays.	Reflective metal panels along the vending wall will be brighter, eliminate shadows, and reduce clutter.	Smaller manager kiosk will make room for more fare gates, which will be reflective metal instead of “Metro brown”.
Anti-slip flooring at the base of the escalators.	Overhead lighting in the mezzanine.	Glass walls replace concrete, allowing more light through.

Some of those would require expensive retrofits. Stainless steel walls aren’t cheap, and neither are all-new pylons up and down the whole platform. It’s probably unlikely that all 42 underground stations need or would get all of these improvements, to say nothing of the 44 above ground stations. It could be that some stations only need more lighting, while others only need more fare gates, or anti-slip floors. Some might not need anything at all.

As it moves forward, WMATA will have to tailor its specific improvements to the individual needs of each station. But before they do that, it makes sense to test the set at the worst offending station.