Metro is spending $38,000 on a pilot program to address a common complaint among its rail passengers: that stations are too dark.

The transit agency is testing a new bank of lights on the mezzanine level at one entrance of the Judiciary Square station. Officials say they chose that location because it's one of the darker mezzanines in the rail system.

The new light fixtures were chosen for energy efficiency and ease of maintenance. Metro may soon install them at the Dupont Circle, Metro Center and Foggy Bottom stations.

When Metro was built, architects designed soft, indirect lighting to show off the stations' vaulted arches. But riders have long complained that it is too dark to read in the stations and even hard to see where you're going sometimes.

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