The Metro station at Van Ness is not the dark cavern it used to be.
Thanks to the sharp-eyed folks at Popville, we now know our eyes were not deceiving us. WMATA has been installing LED trackbed lighting at several Metro stations, and the work at Van Ness, Tenleytown and Friendship Heights stations is halfway done.
The new lighting is on the inbound (heading toward Cleveland Park, etc.) side of the station.
The new LED trackbed lighting is on the right (inbound Red Line) side of the photo. The older lights are on the left.
WMATA expects to complete the work on the outbound side of Van Ness station by January 26th.
“All of Metro’s 48 underground stations will be upgraded to LED systems over the next 30 months,” says WMATA in the press release. So far, work has been completed at nearly a third of them, and the lighting is 3 to 9 times brighter at each one.