DC Metro may extend repair project amid safety concerns

Additional weekend closures on Washington’s Metrorail system may be possible during its massive repair effort, the head of the transit agency announced on Wednesday.

{mosads}General Manager Paul Wiedefeld said during a press conference that the agency is revisiting the schedule for its yearlong SafeTrack project and is considering adding more partial shutdowns on weekends in order to address safety issues in the “crossover” areas where trains switch over to other tracks.

“We have a roof, and we’ve had problems with the roof, and now that we started peeling it away, we’re finding more and more problems,” Wiedefeld said. “And it’s something that you have to deal with.”

The announcement comes in the wake of a train derailment last month in a crossover area near the East Falls Church platform that was caused by deteriorating rail ties, which led the space between tracks to become too wide.

In an scathing new report released this week, federal investigators found that Metro workers were only inspecting the tracks once a month instead of the required twice-weekly inspections and said Metro was aware of tracks needing repairs in the accident area prior to the derailment.
 
Wiedefeld maintains that he didn’t know inspections weren’t being done as often as required and said the track problems were never brought to his attention, though the issues are “being addressed immediately.”

Wiedefeld outlined a number of other steps that the agency is taking to address ongoing safety concerns, including hiring outside contractors to review the entire rail system, inspect track conditions and rewrite the inspection training manual.

SafeTrack, which began in June, is part of an ambitious plan to overhaul the safety culture at Metro and cram three years’ worth of deferred maintenance into one year. The project involves partial shutdowns in some stages and continuous single-tracking in others.

Wiedefeld is also proposing to permanently end late-night service on the subway in order to keep up with long-term repair efforts.

“Safety does trump service at all times here at Metro,” Wiedefeld said. “It is a concept that’s evolving for sure, it’s changing decades of culture to understand that, but that is who we are and that is who we are going to be.”

But the beleaguered transit agency has continued to be dogged by safety issues, such as the train derailment and several recent red signal violations.

Metro Board of Directors Chairman Jack Evans said there will be a special meeting on Aug. 25 to brief board members on some of the latest safety incidents.

“The board is very engaged in what’s happening, and very concerned about the safety issues,” Evans said. “But I have enormous confidence that Paul and his staff are working very hard to address these problems.”