Metro officials say they are working to upgrade power substations and railcars to help cut down on the continuing delays.
There are between 20 and 25 unexpected delays lasting longer than four minutes each week on the Metro system, causing the region’s residents to be stuck on platforms, late to work and in sour moods. An emergency transfer switch, which backs up the regular power switches, failed shortly before 6 a.m. Thursday sending nearly 3,000 people onto shuttle buses between the Red Line’s Woodley Park and Dupont Circle, said Steve Feil, Metrorail chief operating officer. Another 75 people had to be rescued from a train sitting in the tunnel in a process that took more than 50 minutes to complete.
Faster response and better planning on track work are being looked at to prevent the situation from happening again, Feil said.
A power crew should shadow work crews during the rush hours to have “response instantaneously,” he said.
Workers were upgrading old transformer cables and other antiquated equipment at the station when the switch failed, causing the power outage that brought down both tracks. The work was part of a program to upgrade 20 substations a year to allow for better energy flow, which will help power the coming eight-car trains, Feil said.
The workers could reconfigure the job to only effect one track at a time to prevent a total outage “instead of trying to do a lot more at once,” he said.
