Train equipment causes Red Line snarls during commute
By: Kytja Weir
Examiner Staff Writer
October 6, 2009
Blame a lost shoe for your lengthy Red Line commute Tuesday morning.
Train service across the Red Line was snarled for at least an hour and a half during the morning rush when a train lost a "collector shoe" on the tracks, causing smoke and delays. Other lines felt the impact, too, as riders switched trains to avoid the bottleneck.
The Red Line train that caused the problem was leaving Gallery Place for Metro Center when the train hit the equipment with a thud at 8:59 a.m., causing smoke, according to Metro.
It appears one of the collector shoes fell off the train. Each railcar has four such shoes that connect the trains to their power source on the electrified third rail.
All the passengers were offloaded from the six-car train at Metro Center. No one was injured in the incident, according to the agency.
Then the transit system shut down that track to inspect the area.
In the meantime, all other trains were forced to share a single track between Farragut North and Judiciary Square until 10:12 a.m.
Problems with such shoes have wrecked havoc on commutes in the past. On July 30, a fire broke out on an Orange Line train during the height of the morning commute when a shoe caught fire, forcing a train operator to go into the tunnel to put out the fire with an extinguisher.
