A defect of wheels and axles that has prompted the suspension of about 60 percent of Metro’s rail cars since mid-October was found this year in another model of rail car, a watchdog agency said Tuesday.
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Washington Metrorail Safety Commission chief executive David Mayer told commissioners a wheelset widening problem that has increased the derailment risk in Metro’s latest model of rail car was found in a 6000-series rail car. The discovery is the first publicly known instance of the troublesome and rare malfunction found outside of the 7000 series.
Metro officials said the widened wheelset on the 6000-series car was found in January and is unrelated to the defect under investigation in the 7000 series.
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All 748 of Metro’s 7000-series cars were pulled from service under a safety commission order Oct. 17, leaving Metro to operate with a small fleet of older model rail cars. The suspension resulted in a train shortage that has forced the transit system to provide scaled-back service with long waits at a time when more commuters are determining how to return to reopened offices for the first time since the pandemic began.
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The National Transportation Safety Board is in its second month of an investigation. The board has enlisted the safety commission as well as the Federal Transit Administration, Metro, and 7000-series car builder Kawasaki Rail Car and its subcontractors in the probe.
“We are continuing to work with them as party to that investigation,” Mayer said Tuesday.
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Metro’s troubles began Oct. 12, when a Blue Line train derailed outside the Arlington Cemetery station, forcing the evacuation of 187 passengers. Investigators found that wheels on an axle of the car that had slipped off the track had moved two inches farther apart.
Metro deems a shift of more than one-sixteenth of an inch from wheels’ fixed position to be unsafe.
Metro mechanics first found the problem on 7000-series cars in 2017, but the cases were limited to a handful until this year, when the problem grew. The defect is unusual, according to investigators and experts, and the cause is unknown.
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From fall 2020 through the end of September this year, Mayer said, Metro officials said their technicians or other staff had found 20 instances in which the wheels on 7000-series rail cars had moved too far apart. They also found the instance involving the 6000-series car, Mayer said.
Emergency inspections by Metro and the NTSB after the derailment identified about 20 more cases among 7000-series cars.
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NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said Tuesday that he wasn’t immediately aware of any agency investigation involving Metro’s 6000-series rail cars.
“The NTSB will investigate an accident and if a systemic problem has been found then NTSB will issue a safety recommendation and/or a safety alert similar to what was issued last week,” Holloway said in an email.
Such wheel movement could cause “catastrophic” accidents, according to the safety board, which issued the alert last week to all transit and commuter rail systems to check their cars’ wheel gauges. Federal officials have said they are not aware of other instances at other agencies.
Metro’s 7000-series and 6000-series cars were built by different builders and are different in size and design. The 6000 series, built by France-based Alstom, have brown siding and multicolor padded chairs. The 184 cars were incorporated into Metro’s fleet starting in 2006.
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The 7000 series was built by Kawasaki Rail Car and are silver with hard-backed blue seats and wide aisles. They had proven to be much more reliable than Metro’s previous models until recent troubles.
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Metro is using 2000- and 3000-series cars that date back to the 1980s, as well as 40 of the 6000-series cars, which previously were pulled from service for a separate problem.
Metro spokesman Ian Jannetta said the lone 6000-series car found with a widened wheelset in January is an “outlier” that is not related to the 7000-series investigation. He said all trains in service have been checked for wheel problems.
“Our entire fleet has undergone full inspections, which continue daily, as more rail cars are safely being placed into passenger service,” Jannetta said in a statement.
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The transit agency is testing a frequent screening and inspection process of 7000-series cars while seeking permission from the safety commission to put unaffected cars back into service. Jannetta said physical testing of the process, which included running two out-of-service, weighted rail cars throughout the system, is complete.
“We have concluded testing of the 7000-series rail cars and continue to work on a plan to return the fleet to service,” he said.