

Photo by Linda Davidson/The Washington Post).

This post has been updated.

You can’t blame Blue Line riders for feeling like they’re getting the short end of the stick these days. The start of Silver Line service later this month means a 12-minute wait between Blue Line trains and there’s been a lot of grumbling about it.

But on Wednesday, Metro officials threw Blue Line riders a bone. They announced that up to half of all rush-hour Blue Line trains will be eight-car trains. If you start the clock at the top of the hour — and the trains are running on time — that translates to roughly two an hour in each direction. It’s a move that will add room for roughly 200 more passengers on trains that have grown increasingly crowded after the advent of Rush Plus.

It may not make up for the fact that two Blue Line trains per hour will be converted to Yellow trains to accommodate the Silver Line but it’s something. Currently, only one eight-car Blue Line train runs during rush hour.

The number of eight-car trains scheduled on the Orange, Red and Green lines will not change. All Yellow and Silver lines will be six-car trains.