Federal investigators released the site of last month’s deadly train crash to Metro on Friday, allowing the transit agency to begin repairs to the track.
But the news isn’t so good for riders: Delays on the Red Line are expected to continue.
Riders on the busy line should still add at least 30 minutes to their travel plans when the agency begins the repair work next week, said spokeswoman Angela Gates. Metro officials said they expect the work to take about a month, as crews need to replace track circuitry, several thousand feet of cable and other hardware.
The section of Red Line track between the Fort Totten and Takoma stations had been under the National Transportation Safety Board’s control since the June 22 crash so investigators could test equipment and gather data to determine what caused one train to crash into another, killing nine and injuring more than 70. Riders across the Red Line have faced continuing delays because trains have had to slow down and run one at a time in that section.
The NTSB investigation is still under way, even though the on-scene work is complete. So far investigators have focused on the more than 30-year-old electrical equipment that makes up the automatic train safety network that is intended to stop trains before they get too close. But it could be more than a year before the board releases a final report on the cause of the deadly crash.
