All of the new 7000 Series rail cars on Washington D.C.’s Metrorail subway system must undergo repairs to replace the cars’ wiring, a new report says.
According to a review conducted by Metro’s Quality Assurance, Internal Compliance & Oversight office, the wire crimping on the cars was not correctly completed. The flawed wiring has and has been a factor in issues with the rail cars and can lead to major delays.
As a result, all of the 548 new rail cars currently in service must undergo repairs that are likely to take a full year to complete. The review determined that Metro did not demand Kawasaki, who was manufacturing the rail cars, to conduct relevant quality checks.
“During the assessment conducted at Kawasaki Motors Manufacturing, it was discovered that wire crimping defects went undetected by Kawasaki and were found by WMATA’s Resident Inspectors, resulting in defects that require rework on all 548 on-site at WMATA. This will result in rework that will take over one year to accomplish,” the review said.
Metro vowed to ask Kawasaki for information each week until the rail cars manufacturing is finished in 2019 and will modify future contracts to reflect the concerns outlined in the recent report.
The internal review occurred in May and June and concluded in July.
