Metro Experiences Another Setback In Effort To Return Troubled Railcars To Service

WASHINGTON, DC — All 7000-series railcars that Metro had returned to service earlier in the month as a part of a gradual, 90-day process have been ordered out of service by the commission that oversees Metrorail safety.

Washington Metrorail Safety Commission notified the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority that it had learned the authority had returned some 7000-series railcars to service that had not met certain inspection criteria in WMATA's original return to service plan. For this reason, WMSC issued an order to take all 7000-series trains out of service immediately.

On Dec. 14, WMATA announced that it would start reintroducing 336 of the 7000-series trains over a gradual, 90-day process. It made this move after WMSC had approved the original return to service plan for the railcars, which had been sidelined after the Oct. 14 derailment of a Blue Line train in Virginia.

WMATA halted that process last Thursday and said it was going to switch from weekly to nightly inspections.

At the time, Metro's General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Paul J. Wiedefeld said there were no immediate concerns and the change would allow experts more time to study and evaluate the data from the inspections.

Now, WMATA must stop the process and come up with a new return to service plan that addresses WMSC's concerns.

WMSC requested the revised plan describe:

1. The specific additional protections and internal oversight Metrorail will carry out to ensure that any assets the fails a safety-critical inspection, including back-to-back measurements, is removed and kept out of passenger service;
2. The specific additional protections and internal oversight Metrorail will carry out to ensure that no alternative procedures or practices are introduced outside of the official RTS plan;
3. Revised inspection frequency and other criteria based on all available data, including measurements taken since Dec. 1, 2021.

Once WMATA has submitted its new return to service plan, WMSC will have 14 days to review it and determine if it has any technical objections to the revision.

Wednesday's announcement was just the latest in a series of setbacks WMATA has faced as it tries to bring the troubled railcars back online.

Within days of the October derailment, inspectors from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) identified safety concerns with the wheel axle assembly of the 7000-series railcars. Based on those findings, WMSC ordered all 7000-series railcars removed from service on Oct. 18.

The NTSB also discovered WMATA had failed to release information about 52 similar derailments going back to 2017.

With nearly 60 percent of its fleet sidelined, Metrorail began offering reduced service, which resulted in fewer trains and longer wait times for customers.

The latest estimates showed that a return to full service wouldn't occur until at least until Jan. 31, 2022. With Wednesday's setback, this appears unlikely.

Under its initial RTS plan, WMATA was going to pause the reintroduction of railcars beyond the initial 336 after six months to allow it time to assess the effectiveness of its inspection process.