“Normal Sunday service for most lines and three-minute delays for customers traveling around National Airport”

photo by Tim Brown

From WMATA:

“While Metro continues to inspect the oldest railcars in its fleet to ensure brake discs are properly bolted on all wheels, trains will operate near normal Sunday service for all customers with trains arriving every 8-12 minutes on all but the Blue and Yellow lines.

Track repairs are expected to be finished in time for Monday morning’s commute. Today, Blue and Yellow line customers will be served by trains every 15 minutes instead of every 12 minutes as crews continue to restore tracks damaged at National Airport by Friday’s derailed train that struck a brake disc on the tracks.

The investigation into that derailment continues, but Metro found that the wheel measurements on the 7000-series train were consistent with its specifications and there were no apparent track or infrastructure defects, as a preliminary matter. Investigators continue to focus on a disc brake that came loose from a train ahead as a causal factor.

As of this time, Metro had completed the inspections of 80 cars in its legacy fleet of 2000- and 3000-series railcars and found 12 cars with non-conforming bolts that were removed from service.

“We are moving forward very cautiously to provide the safest and most reliable service for our customers,” said Metro General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Randy Clarke. “While one loose bolt is not an imminent safety risk by itself, it’s a sign that we need to take extra steps to maintain these cars as we continue to press into service cars that are more than 35 years old.”

The 2000- and 3000-series cars, built in the mid 1980’s are reaching the end of their useful life and are scheduled to be replaced by new 8000-series railcars.”