D.C. Metro will reopen Thursday following safety checks

Metro officials said Wednesday evening that investigators discovered 26 areas with frayed jumper cables, which are cords that are attached to the third rail and allow for the transmission of electricity. But officials still expect to reopen all lines at 5 a.m. Thursday as scheduled.

As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority said it has inspected 80 percent of the project’s 600 cables in 22 zones.

“Since we began at midnight, Metro teams have identified 26 areas where damaged jumper cables and connector boots exist,” Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld at a press conference. “The inspection is near completion, but I would expect this number to grow slightly even higher.”

Metro officials said 18 of the 26 flawed cables have been repaired and they are confident the investigation, which will have covered 100 miles of underground track by the time it concludes, will be finished by Thursday’s reopening.

However, if teams are unable to make the repairs by 5 a.m., some lines may be single-tracked or bus bridges established.

The shutdown, announced Tuesday evening, was the first non-weather related one in Metro’s 39-year history.

Metro’s board of directors and Wiedefeld, who has been in his position for about four months, ordered the shutdown following a cable fire at McPherson Square on Monday, similar to an incident at L’Enfant Plaza a year ago in which a passenger died from smoke inhalation. No one was killed in Monday’s incident, but officials moved to take precautionary action to avoid another similar situation. Wednesday’s investigation found a number of potentially hazardous situations on four lines.

Wiedefeld said the search found three “show-stoppers” or spots “where we would not be running trains if we came upon these conditions.” The three stops with the most dangerous conditions included Potomac Avenue, McPherson Square and Foggy Bottom on the Orange, Blue and Silver lines.

“Before 5 a.m. tomorrow we will finish the immediate repairs for all 26 and any additional ones that we find,” Wiedefeld added. “If we are not able to repair any of those as we come upon them, basically what we will do is go into single-tracking mode and or bus bridges between stations.”

The Office of Personnel Management allowed federal employees to telecommute Wednesday.

For Washington-area residents not employed by the federal government, many turned to alternative transportation sources, including cabs and ride-sharing apps Uber and Lyft. Uber reported a 70 percent increase in the number of people who signed up Tuesday into Wednesday when compared to the same 24-hour time span last week.

Capital Bikeshare offered free 24-hour memberships at all 372 stations on Wednesday. In Washington’s northeastern quadrant, the newly opened street car on H Street reported a 13 percent increase in ridership since last week.

“We still believe today that we made the correct decision because of safety, that none of us in good conscience could send those trains out, even with full knowledge of the participants of what the situation was knowing the risks that we had,” Jack Evans, chairman of the Metro board, said Wednesday.