Metro has fixed at least 47 track circuits with problems since last month’s deadly train crash, and officials were working on 15 more Wednesday.
The update, listed on a new Metro Web page, is the first comprehensive look at how systemic the problems may be in the transit system since the June 22 crash exposed problems in the automatic train safety network that keeps trains from getting too close to each other.
The site shows that the transit agency had found eight circuits out of 3,000 that needed work by the time Metro General Manager John Catoe told a congressional oversight committee July 14 that just three circuits needed to be fixed.
“We have now completed our check of those circuits, and determined that 99.97 percent of them needed no adjustment whatsoever,” he said in his written testimony submitted that day. “Three circuits — two in our rail yards and one on the main track — were within the safety tolerance range, but because they were on the lower end of that range, we made adjustments to them.”
But eight problematic circuits, all on passenger lines throughout the system, were listed on the Web site with start dates of July 9 through July 13. “If that’s what he said, that’s what he was aware of at the time,” spokeswoman Angela Gates said Wednesday.
She said Catoe was referring to physical tests that had been done to the circuits, not tougher computerized tests that began shortly after the crash.
After the crash, Metro began reviewing computer data on the circuits twice a day. Previously the agency had been running such tests monthly, using a one-hour sample of data. Metro has said it has set new, tougher standards for how the circuits perform. The agency is fixing those that show problems. “These are all circuits that failed to meet the new standards,” Gates said.
Metro has said such problems are not of the same magnitude as those that have been found near the site of the crash that killed nine and injured more than 70 people. The National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the crash investigation, has not characterized the severity of the problems.
