As the snow begins to melt and the work day begins to restart, there still seems to be ongoing problems cause by the blizzards of last week. One of the biggest problems that hit the D.C. metro area was the derailing of the Red Line train. Around 10:15 a.m. a six-car train headed toward Dupont Circle was derailed due to safety devices that help prevent head-on collisions. The train was re-routed to a pocket track, which is a shorter track used for broken down trains. The train operator failed to stop the train at a red light and the trains safety system popped the wheels of the six-car train. For more than an hour, 345 people where stuck underground with an unfamiliar feeling of cabin fever. The passengers where transported back to the Farragut North Station which caused traffic jams around the station due to emergence response teams. The derailment could not have come at a worse time. The National Transportation Safety Board has yet another investigation totaling four Metro accidents. Over the past eight months, the Metro has been dealing with on-going investigations of five Metro workers whom where killed on the tracks. Also further investigation has been going into the June 22 crash that killed nine people. The Metro transit system was hailed as one of the safest transit systems, but since last summer, the Metro has lost its reputation for safety. This investigation of accidents has gotten the attention of Capital Hill and the Obama Administration, causing speculation over management for the Metro systems. In January, John B. Catoe, Metros General Manager, announced his resignation in April. As a Metro rider, safety plays a major factor in the decision of transportation into D.C., but with these accidents, we can only hope new safety regulations will make everyones trip a bit easier.
Source: The Washington Post, February 13, 2010, Metro B1 Continued on B5. Written by Ann Scott Tyson, Lena H Sun, and Carol Morello.
I wouldn’t want to be on the Metro any time soon. Not in this snow.
Wow, I heard about the incident with the Metro but didn’t know it caused this much trouble. I am new to the Fairfax and D.C. area and have only been on the metro a few times. The Metro here seems alot nicer than the subway I’m used to in New York. Problems with the subway are always happening, I think it just comes with the territory. Although, I am not aware of any time the subway caused such a mess due to derailment. But I suppose, even if it did it’s probably easier there to go around the problems because there is a lot more transferring lines and you can just get on another line if theres a problem with the one you’re on.
I’d still like to see blog posts about news media coverage – this just seems to be about the Metro derailment, rather than about the coverage of the Metro derailment. That said, I am staying off Metro.