Broken Track Blamed for Metro Derail, Delays
Metro working to repair dozens of feet of damaged rail on Red Line
By ASHA BEH
Updated 2:07 PM EST, Sat, Mar 28, 2009
Delays on the Red Line are expected to continue through the weekend due to a broken piece of rail that sent two trains off the track Friday.
Metro workers will work to repair dozens of feet of damaged rail on the Red Line, as trains share a single track between the Friendship Heights and Medical Center Metro stations. Passengers should add an extra 20 to 30 minutes to their trips for the delays.
The track piece in question is being sent to a lab for further analysis and Metro says it will continue to look into the situation.
More than 80 passengers were stranded for over an hour on a Red Line train that came to a jolt and had a sudden loss of power at 4:24 p.m. Friday, minutes after leaving the Bethesda station. Metro sent an empty evacuation train to the first train, which was stuck, but as workers attempted to couple the trains, the last car of the broken train and the lead car of the second train both came off the tracks.
There were no reported injuries during the derailment, but the delays left thousands of commuters frustrated during the Friday evening rush. Metro ran supplemental shuttle buses to ease the problem.
Full service is expected to begin again on Monday.
First Published: Mar 28, 2009 7:02 AM EST
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