The 100 rail cars pulled out of service earlier this month for a dangerous door flaw have all been fixed and returned to service, according to Metro’s top leader.
The transit system found problems with the motors inside the doors of the Breda 4000 series rail cars on July 2. The flaw allowed doors to open while operating, possibly during high speed travel.
Metro officials immediately pulled all the cars from service and said it could take three weeks or more to fix the 1,200 motors in the doors of the railcars.
Interim General Manager Richard Sarles said Tuesday morning on WTOP’s “Ask Metro” program that all the cars had been fixed and returned to the rails, a bit faster than three weeks.
That should translate to a return to more trains with eight cars, meaning more room for riders. Typically the agency runs 850 cars out of its 1,118 fleet during the peak commutes — about 70 of them the Breda 4000 series that had the faulty door motors. During the repairs, the agency ran some shorter trains.
But, as riders have noticed during the ongoing heat wave, the transit agency has been blacking out some rail cars on trains like a gap-toothed smile when the air conditioning breaks on a given rail car. Sarles said typically 30 to 40 railcars a day have air conditioning problems that need to be addressed.
Metro Board Chairman Peter Benjamin said the trains’ air conditioning units have been working overtime to combat the heat, causing more breakdowns.
So expect some crowding into the cars that remain in service. (And if you notice a car with broken AC, note the train number on the inside end doors and alert the operator or call Metro’s customer service line: 202-637-1328.)
