Red Line delays to continue at crash site
By: Kytja Weir
Examiner Staff Writer
October 5, 2009
Red Line riders are still facing delays more than a month after Metro had hoped to fix an area of track where a deadly crash occurred this summer.
The transit agency has had to slow down trains between the Takoma and Fort Totten stations since the June 22 crash there killed nine and injured more than 70 people. And it's not clear when it can return to normal.
Metro officials initially told riders the repairs should be done by the end of August.
Then in early September, General Manager John Catoe said the work was taking longer than expected and would take at least a week more.
But as of Friday, nearly 15 weeks after the crash, the transit agency was still tweaking the track equipment, said spokesman Steven Taubenkibel. He said officials don't know when Red Line service will be fully restored.
"It just requires a lot of constant watching and monitoring," Taubenkibel said.
Part of the problem is that the National Transportation Safety Board has not said definitively what caused the crash between two trains. It may take months before the federal investigators issue a final report. Their preliminary work has pointed to problems with track equipment sending false information to the safety control system that keeps trains from getting too close. But Metro does not have a solution of how to stop the problem from happening again.
What that means for riders is more disruptions and unpredictable slowdowns.
What that means for riders is more disruptions and unpredictable slowdowns.
Trains still run slowly through the crash area, meaning longer waits between trains and a domino effect of slowdowns down the line. Riders in Bethesda and Shady Grove can feel the effect even if they never travel near the crash site.
The crash means the transit agency has been able to run 39 trains on the Red Line instead of the usual 44, Taubenkibel said. Fewer trains means fewer passengers can be ferried on the system.
Elsewhere, other riders are still feeling the effect of the crash. Trains have been running in manual mode since the accident instead of automatic mode in which computers control speeds, stops and starts. That means bumpier rides and more delays.
Catoe said in an online chat that running a train from one end of the line to the other will add a few minutes to each train's schedule, which could cause trains to miss riders' bus connections.
