Metro board slams officials for lack of communication

Metro officials were admonished Thursday for the agency’s poor communication during a series of events that crippled the Orange Line over the past week and a half.

Metro did not alert customers waiting on packed platforms that trains would not be coming, did not communicate with jurisdictions to ensure smooth shuttle bus service during last week’s storm and did not notify Arlington‘s emergency workers about Monday’s derailment until the train had been stopped for 15 minutes, Board of Directors members said.

“We have communications issues, and not just with our customers,” Metro Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman said. “We have communications issues with the jurisdictions, and it seems we have communications issues within Metro itself.”

General Manager John Catoe said Metro called the Arlington Fire Department as soon as officials determined that the train was derailed between the Rosslyn and Courthouse stations Monday afternoon.

That process took 15 minutes as a Metro supervisor walked the tracks to examine the train before discovering the cause of the train’s bumping was a derailed wheel on the third car.

Zimmerman said emergency workers have told him they want to be notified as soon as a potential issue is identified.

“I’m really glad that there weren’t any injuries, but if you lose 15 minutes, that might be an issue in the future,” he said.

Catoe said he is meeting with the fire chiefs in each of the jurisdictions to establish if they should be notified about every event before the cause is determined.

Catoe and his second in command, Gerald Francis, also took heat for a disorganized staging of shuttle buses during last week’s severe weather, when downed power lines blocked the tracks between the EastFalls Church and West Falls Church stations.

Riders lined up for blocks outside the East Falls Church station and complained that there were no Metro workers to direct them to buses and no explanation of the hours-long delays.

Francis said Thursday that Metro will begin to be more specific in its delay notifications, explaining that waits for shuttle buses could be as long as two or three hours as buses can fit only a fraction of train riders and must sit in the same traffic as cars.

“If it’s going to be hours, we need to tell [the riders],” Francis said. “We need to be accurate, we have to be honest.”

Metro also did not immediately call for shuttle buses after discovering a heat kink in the rail near the Ballston station Wednesday that shut down train service there and sent delays rippling through the Orange Line.

“That’s one of the things we’re working on — making sure we make that call [for buses] sooner than later,” he said.

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