The Metro authority’s safety commission ordered overnight that the entire 7000-series line of trains—comprising 748 cars, or about 60 percent of the fleet—should be pulled.
Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), told reporters Monday that a problem with the line had been identified, the AP said. The trains’ wheels were positioned too wide on the axles and could cause the vehicle to slip off the tracks.
“We’re at the preliminary stage of our investigation—just trying to collect data and information,” Homendy said. “This could have resulted in a catastrophic event.”
The problem with the Kawasaki-made 7000-line was blamed for the derailment of a Metro blue line carriage near Arlington Cemetery last week, according to the AP. The car seemed to derail, reconnect with the rails and then derail again, Homendy said. The derailment trapped some of the train’s passengers in a tunnel, forcing them to evacuate on foot.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
The safety ruling had already snarled commutes across the nation’s capital and the intertwined communities of northern Virginia and southern Maryland. Passengers on social media reported widespread delays with commuters waiting up to 45 minutes between trains and crowding chaotically into whatever space was available.
The problem comes as the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is working to attract more riders after the numbers plummeted because of the coronavirus pandemic. Overall rider numbers remain at a fraction of pre-pandemic levels but are expected to increase steadily as offices reopen and tourists return to Washington.
It remains to be seen whether the axle issue spreads to other regional commuter systems. Kawasaki supplies trains to the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City, among other systems, and Homendy said the NTSB “may at some point” issue a recommendation for inspections of all similar train cars around the country.
“If you are a transit agency operating in the United States and you’re listening, make sure you are checking your cars as well,” she said.
The incident promises to shine a potentially harsh light on WMATA, the regional transit authority. It suffered a string of embarrassing and dangerous derailments and track fires, several years ago but claimed to have addressed its issues.
Homendy revealed Monday that WMATA had been aware of the potential problem since 2017 but hadn’t informed the NTSB, and that minor incidents with the wheels had been escalating since then. She said WMATA was aware of 18 such failures in 2021, and the current round of emergency inspections revealed an additional 21 failures—for a total of 39 this year alone. Homendy said the inspections were ongoing that “that number could go up” in the coming days.
The local Metro authority has not commented on this issue, other than announcements of reduced service and expected delays.
