A blown transformer, surging power, blazing bolts and flaming insulation led to a near complete failure of the Metro system in Northern Virginia and D.C. on both Sunday and Monday nights, Metro General Manager John Catoe said Tuesday.
During a news conference at Metro headquarters, Catoe apologized to the thousands of riders stranded by mishaps on the Blue, Yellow and Green lines, and he pledged extensive fixes to shore up the system. In the short term, he said, he will ask Metro’s board to reprogram $25 million to $30 million from its capital budget for immediate repairs to tracks and power stations. In the long term, improvements will cost billions.
Metro has spent so much money over the years keeping up with increasing demand, Catoe said, but not nearly enough maintaining its infrastructure.
“This was not because individuals thought we shouldn’t,” he said. “It was because we did not have the resources to do so.”
The delays caught the eye of members of Congress. U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., on Tuesday called for an oversight hearing into Metro’s recent troubles. Most of the issues on the Blue and Yellow lines, between Arlington Cemetery and Braddock Road, were caused by a transformer failure Sunday evening at Metro’s Potomac Yard substation, likely caused by a power surge. Adding to the problem: The substations at Reagan National Airport and Braddock Road were both operating at less than 66 percent, meaning neither could pick up the slack.
“That combination of factors, and the number of trains operating with the power demand, basically it became like a brownout with an electric utility, and components started failing,” Catoe said.
It will take weeks to install a new transformer at Potomac Yard.
Metro officials could not explain why the system failed so badly Sunday, then ran smoothly Monday morning before crashing again Monday evening. They expect their short-term fixes, including upgrades to both the Braddock and Reagan National substations, to solve the problem for now.
Between Sunday and Monday nights, a control room fire at Reagan National Airport forced that station to close, smoking insulation at Farragut North shuttered that station, and a downed track circuit temporarily closed Huntington. Farragut West closed for about 30 minutes when smoke was spotted coming from an empty train’s brakes, and the U Street-Cardozo and Columbia Heights stations were closed due a track fire caused by a “hot bolt.”
