Train malfunctions and unexpected track repairs snared the rush-hour commute for riders across four lines on the D.C. Metro Friday morning.
Officials interrupted service on the orange line in the early hours of Friday morning for unscheduled maitinence at the West Falls Church station. Officials quickly resumed service, however residual delays continued. A train malfunction at the Crystal City station caused delays along the blue line in the direction of Franconia-Springfield. An additional train malfunction at the Franconia station added blue line delays in the direction of Largo, according to Metro officials.
A signal problem at the Mt.Vernon Square station disrupted service along the yellow line and green line riders experienced brief delays after an unspecified mechanical issue with a train at L’Enfant Plaza.
The issues come amid a tumultuous week for D.C. Metro riders and officials. Federal investigators tore into the D.C. Metro’s lax safety standards in a report prompted by the recent derailment, ordering officials to take a dozen urgent actions to fix various safety threats in the system. (RELATED: Smoking Train, Several Malfunctions Cause Brutal Commute On DC Metro)
The brutal critique of the transit system by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) found Metro officials failed to follow their own rules for track inspections before the derailment. Officials were only conducting track inspections in the area of the accident roughly once a month, despite a policy mandating tracks be checked and inspected every two weeks.
D.C. Metro officials added emergency maitinence work to the next SafeTrack repair surge that kicked off Tuesday to address safety concerns from the FTA and their own internal investigation into the derailment. Surge 7 repairs will last through August 18. Trains are single tracking between the Shady Grove and Twinbrook stations, disrupting roughly 32,000 weekly trips.
Officials will expand the repair work this weekend and initiate a full shutdown of the red line between the Shady Grove and Grosvenor stations to address safety threats still present in the system. The Rockville, Twinbrook, Shady Grove and White Flint stations will be closed for the weekend work and service will be replaced by free shuttle buses
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