Administrator
Posted 07 August 2015 - 12:37 PM
WTOP "Commuter Alert," 8/7 12:38 pm:
Metro's Orange/Blue/Silver lines single-tracking
On Metro's Orange/Blue/Silver lines, trains are single-tracking between McPherson Square and Federal Center because of a track problem at Smithsonian. There are delays in both directions.
Read more: http://bit.ly/1NcJcNj
WMATA service alert:
Orange/Blue/Silver Line: Single tracking btwn Smithsonian & Federal Ctr due to a track problem at Smithsonian. Delays in both directions.08/07/2015 12:41 PM
Administrator
Posted 07 August 2015 - 01:26 PM
WTOP "Commuter Alert 2:20 pm:"
Metro's Orange/Blue/Silver lines no longer single-tracking
Metro’s Orange/Blue/Silver lines are no longer single tracking Delays continue in both directions.
Read more: http://bit.ly/1DAlvyr
WMATA Service Alert:
Org/Blu/Sil Line: No longer single tracking. Residual delays continue in both directions due to an earlier track problem at Smithsonian.
08/07/2015 02:11 PM
Administrator
Posted 07 August 2015 - 04:30 PM
WMATA news release 8/7:
Metro to issue travel credit to Orange, Silver, Blue riders due to multiple service disruptions
Metro Interim General Manager/CEO Jack Requa today announced the issuance of a SmarTrip credit to all riders using Smartrip cards who traveled on the Blue, Orange and Silver lines today.
Each rider who used a SmarTrip card to enter and exit the system and traveled on the Blue, Orange or Silver lines between the hours of 5 a.m. and 7 p.m. today will automatically receive a credit on their card for the fare they were charged at the gates. Qualifying riders will receive the credit on their SmarTrip card early next week when they tap their card at a Metro faregate or fare machine.
The credits will be processed automatically to SmarTrip cards, no action is required by customers to receive the credit.
"We absolutely understand the frustration among our Blue, Orange and Silver line customers," said Metro Interim General Manager/CEO Jack Requa, who regularly commutes on the Orange line. "Given the significant service disruptions that inconvenienced riders over multiple commutes this week, we are taking this step to thank everyone for bearing with us. I also offer a sincere apology to everyone who was inconvenienced.”
The Blue, Orange and Silver lines were disrupted yesterday due to a derailment of a non-passenger train outside Smithsonian Station. During the morning, buses replaced trains between McPherson Square and Federal Center SW stations. That was followed by single tracking through the afternoon and evening that resulted in lengthy delays for many riders.
This morning, Orange and Silver line service was disrupted due to a loss of third-rail power on the inbound track outside East Falls Church Station. The passengers aboard a Silver Line train in the area without power had to be assisted by emergency responders to East Falls Church Station. Rail service was suspended for approximately 30 minutes and then followed by single tracking until just before noon.
Paper farecards, used by less than 10 percent of all riders, do not qualify for the travel credit.
News release issued at 3:28 pm, August 7, 2015.
Administrator
Posted 12 August 2015 - 07:09 PM
WTOP radio, 8/12:
Metro: Track problems detected before derailment
WASHINGTON — Metro’s interim general manager says the derailment of one of its trains near the Smithsonian Station last week could have been avoided and took the blame for the significant service disruptions that lasted most of a day.
At a news conference Wednesday, Metro Interim General Manager Jack Requa said the cause was a track defect known as a “wide gauge” — a problem detected a month before the Aug. 6 derailment, but never repaired.
SNIP
“I don’t want mince words, but this is totally unacceptable,” Requa says of the problem detected on July 9. “It is unacceptable to me and it should be unacceptable to everyone within the chain of command.”
More here.
Administrator
Posted 12 August 2015 - 07:12 PM
The Washington Post, 8/12:
Cause of last week’s Metro derailment had been detected in early July
The track defect that caused last week’s Metro derailment was detected last month, but had not been fixed, the transit agency’s top executive said Wednesday.
“I don’t want to mince words, but this was totally unacceptable,” interim General Manager Jack Requa said during a news conference.
Continue here w/news conference video clip.
Administrator
Posted 13 August 2015 - 06:49 PM
WMATA news release, 8/13:
Statement by Metro Board of Directors regarding derailment investigation
The following statement was issued today by Metro's Board of Directors:
“The Board is outraged and dismayed that anyone working at Metro would have critical safety information and not act on it immediately. It is totally unacceptable that the wide gauge track problem reported yesterday by the General Manager could go unaddressed and unrepaired for four weeks. This is a breakdown of the organization’s chain of command and our safety culture. We obviously have much work ahead of us to improve the organization’s safety culture, and we will do so,” said Metro Safety Committee Chair Michael Goldman, speaking on behalf of the Board. “However, Jack Requa’s transparent release of information, as well as his actions to order immediate track inspections and gather information to hold people accountable at every level, is what the Board expects and what the circumstances demand.
“The Board has directed the General Manager to complete his operational investigation within 10 days that will explain to the Board and our riders how this track deficiency went unrepaired for so long. The Board looks forward to learning how the chain of command broke down and where the responsibility lies. This is an unforgivable breach of safety that needs to be dealt with firmly and swiftly.”
News release issued at 5:25 pm, August 13, 2015.
Administrator
Posted 17 August 2015 - 01:30 PM
WMATA news release, 8/17:
Statement by Metro Board Safety Committee Chair announcing Sept. 3 meeting
Metro Board Safety Committee Chair Michael Goldman today announced that the Committee will hold an earlier than scheduled meeting on Thursday, Sept. 3 at 10:00 a.m. to review the Interim General Manager's operational investigation report on the August 6 wide-gauge derailment incident, which the Board expects to receive by August 24.
While aware of the Senators’ call for an earlier Board meeting, Goldman said he wanted to give Board Members sufficient time to review the report and consult with their jurisdictional safety experts before the Board Committee meeting. Goldman added that factual information may be available to the Board by then from the Safety Department’s review of the incident.
The meeting will take place at Metro Headquarters (Jackson Graham Building), 600 Fifth Street, NW, Washington, DC.
Administrator
Posted 20 August 2015 - 07:28 AM
WTOP radio, 8/20:
Va. transit leader slams Metro on operations, safety
RICHMOND — Metro has not been able to maintain operations and keep the public safe, Virginia’s transportation secretary says.
“It’s not a popularity contest. This is not about making sure everybody’s happy,” Aubrey Layne said. “This is about running a business and making sure our traveling public’s safe, and they have proven that they have not been able to do that up to date.”
Some riders are now unsure about whether they should be comfortable using the system since news emerged that an Aug. 6 derailment was caused by a dangerous problem Metro knew about a month earlier but never fixed.
Layne said he understood how those riders felt. “The overall safety record has been relatively good, but there’s no excuse for what happened,” he said.
Continue here.
Administrator
Posted 28 August 2015 - 04:04 PM
WTOP radio, 8/28:
Report: 2 resign after deleted track warning led to Metro derailment
WASHINGTON — A track defect that led to the train derailment near Metro’s Smithsonian Station earlier this month was “erroneously deleted” from a routine report submitted to repair crews, according to an initial review Metro released Friday.
Two Metro employees involved in the July track inspection that first detected the spreading of the track have resigned. Metro’s investigation also found that multiple visual inspections of the track failed to detect broken fasteners at the derailment site, which allowed the track to spread apart.
According to the report, the root cause of the derailment is “failure of the rail fasteners that hold the rail in place, which resulted in rail spreading wide enough for a wheel axle to drop between the rails.”
But the new report also details how the loose section of track was missed.
Continue here.
Metro report on August 6, 2015 derailment
Administrator
Posted 03 September 2015 - 06:26 PM
The Washington Post, 9/3:
Metro’s chief safety officer resigns in wake of Aug. 6 derailment
Metro’s chief safety officer resigned Thursday after members of the transit authority’s governing board publicly lambasted the agency’s most senior managers, angrily questioning why no top officials had lost their jobs over last month’s subway derailment while at least two lower-level workers had been forced to quit.
James Dougherty, who joined Metro as the head of its safety department in 2010, is the first high-level official to depart the agency in the aftermath of the Aug. 6 derailment, which forced the day-long closing of two downtown Washington Metro stations and large parts of three subway lines, leaving thousands of commuters stranded.
At an unusually heated meeting of the governing board’s safety committee Thursday morning, Dougherty was among a trio of high-level managers grilled at length about the incident. The officials’ technical explanations for why a track defect that led to the derailment had been overlooked a month earlier, their mea culpas at the meeting and their promises to do better in the future seemed to satisfy no one on the committee.
Continue here.
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