Metro builds Web site about faulty track circuits
By: Kytja Weir
Examiner Staff Writer
July 27, 2009
Metro has created a website to alert riders daily of where it is working on problems found in its track circuits.
The move is an attempt to provide some openness to the system’s safety and operations after criticism of how it has handled information related to the June 22 crash that killed nine and injured more than 70 people. But the transit agency still has not been able to say how many circuits have needed repair under new testing standards established after the crash to give a sense of how widespread the problems may be.
Two weeks ago Metro officials testified in a congressional hearing that three of its 3,000 circuits had problems. Last week it said half a dozen. As of Monday evening, the new Web page listed eight circuits with problems dating from three days earlier. Work on two of those had been completed, while one was the site of the accident investigation.
Metro spokesmen have said the agency is working on an average of two to four circuits per day, but that includes regular maintenance as well as circuits with problems.
The transit system has been able to adjust some circuits but has had to turn off others that need extensive work. When it does, trains travel at no more than 15 mph in that section of track and officials stay in radio contact with the train as a safety precaution.
The operations center also can see the location of the trains on a large control board.
The work can mean delays as trains slow down when they pass through that section of track.
The circuits are a key component of the train protection system that prevents trains from running into each other. The circuits, bound on either side by devices called “impedance bonds,” communicate the speed and location of trains. They also help stop trains when they get too close to each other.
The federal investigation into the recent crash has found two key pieces of circuit equipment at the crash site had problems after they were replaced. The faults may have prevented the system from sensing a stopped train on the tracks and sent another train hurtling
toward it.
Since the crash, Metro has begun reviewing data from its other circuits twice a day and found problems with some of them.
kweir@washingtonexaminer.com
