A rare wheel defect that has sidelined nearly 60 percent of Metro rail cars prompted the Federal Transit Administration on Friday to recommend all public transportation systems inspect wheels and axles on their subway cars. The federal agency also ordered the nation’s transit agencies to submit records of any rail cars found with wheel sets that have loosened or tilted.
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The FTA safety advisory calls on states to report “out of tolerance wheel gauges” — wheels that have shifted from their fixed positions on axles — within the transit systems they oversee and to have them do a fresh round of inspections on all rail cars.
The advisory, which takes effect next month, comes after several transit agencies across the country have indicated their fleets aren’t affected by the defect afflicting Metro’s 7000-series rail cars.
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Metro’s latest model of rail car was pulled out of service Oct. 17 after the National Transportation Safety Board found several cars with wheels that had shifted outward on axles, making them more prone to slipping off tracks. The NTSB discovered the defect while investigating a Blue Line derailment earlier this month that led to an evacuation.
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Rail car wheels are typically pressed to their axles with intense force, making them unable to shift from precise measurements that line up with the track. The FTA’s order underscores the rarity of a defect that has spurred Metro’s biggest crisis in six years.
The FTA said in a statement that it issued the order because the safety of the nation’s public transportation systems is a top priority. NTSB officials have expressed concerns to the FTA that the unusual occurrence could affect other rail cars — something NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy raised early in the investigation.
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“While we do not know at this time if this is a widespread issue among rail cars in other transit agencies, the NTSB believes that action must be taken,” NTSB spokeswoman Jennifer Gabris said Friday. “Safety alerts, like the one issued by the FTA, help to prevent the occurrence of similar accidents in the future.”
The suspension of 748 Metro rail cars has limited the nation’s third-largest transit system to no more than 50 available trains on a severely reduced schedule with waits as long as 40 minutes.
Two Metro cars with known defects continued operating until safety inspectors alerted the agency, officials say
Transit agencies across the country have various standards to measure the width between two wheels on an axle, according to several queried Friday by The Washington Post. Some transit agencies take measurements during regular inspections or because the wheel set manufacturer requires them for warranty purposes.
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But for many agencies, such inspections aren’t routine. One reason, said Russell G. Quimby, a former NTSB rail engineer and investigator for more than two decades, is that rail car wheels do not typically shift.
“Until this [Metro] thing came up, to be honest with you, wheel gauge was not a problem,” Quimby said. “I’ve never been involved in a transit accident investigation where a wheel gauge was an issue.”
Federal investigation into suspended rail cars puts focus on inspections, maintenance
The defect began appearing in 2017 on Metro’s 7000-series cars, built by Kawasaki Rail Car, two years after the cars began arriving from a plant in Nebraska. Two cases were found that year during regular 90-day inspections. Annual discoveries of the defect were limited to a handful until this year, when Metro mechanics uncovered 18.
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As the number of cases rose within Metro’s fleet of more than 1,200 cars, the transit agency’s chief executive, board of directors and an independent oversight agency, the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission, were not notified.
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The issue surfaced when a train derailed Oct. 12 outside the Arlington Cemetery station, forcing the evacuation of 187 passengers. Emergency inspections of all 7000-series cars by Metro and the NTSB have since found about 20 more cases.
The NTSB is leading the investigation into the defect’s origin and circumstances, and is working alongside Metro, the safety commission, the FTA, the union that represents most Metro workers, Kawasaki Rail and ORX, the company that assembled the wheel sets. The safety commission will allow Metro to put non-defective cars back into service after the agency submits a plan that would ensure cars are regularly screened for the defect.
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The safety commission said Friday that Metro has not turned in a proposal. Metro said it is working on details of the plan, which is likely to include an inspection and detection process. The agency said Thursday that limited transit service will continue until at least Nov. 15.
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Across the country, rail transit systems on Friday began gathering information to comply with the FTA order, which requires their state oversight agencies to submit documentation within 30 days. Federal officials want to know transit systems’ number of rail cars, how and when wheel gauges are inspected and the number of vehicles that failed wheel set inspections between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30.
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Within 60 days, they also want data from a fresh round of inspections that must begin no later than this month, as well as the number of cars inspected and any failures detected.
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Los Angeles Metro said it is required to measure rail cars’ wheel gauges on its more than 400 cars at four miles-based intervals. Agency spokesman Jose Ubaldo said L.A. Metro puts cars through inspections 10 to 15 times each year, on average, and the agency has found no wheels shifting over the past year.
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the New York subway, said wheel gauges are measured on its 6,455 active cars every 68 to 72 days, or between 10,000 and 12,000 miles, whichever comes first. MTA spokesman Eugene Resnick said the agency learned of the safety advisory Friday and did not immediately know if any of its cars showed wheel set problems during inspections over the past year.
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The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority said it is inspecting rail cars in light of the safety advisory and plans to add wheel gauge measurements to its routine inspections. MARTA currently takes measurements when new cars arrive or after wheel sets are overhauled, spokeswoman Stephany Fisher said.
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The agency has had no wheel gauge issues over the past year, she said, adding that the examination underway has uncovered no problems with half of the fleet inspected.
A spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said workers are heeding the federal government’s recommendations after the Washington-area derailment. The Boston-area agency did not say when wheel gauge inspections were last conducted or describe any findings.
“While the MBTA has the utmost confidence in its fleet of rail cars, the Authority is acting in accordance with the FTA’s guidance and conducting wheel gauge inspections,” spokeswoman Lisa Battiston said.
San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit system officials said they could not comment because the system had not received the safety advisory or instructions from the California Public Utilities Commission, which oversees BART. The Chicago Transit Authority did not respond to a request for comment.