The regional Metro system in Washington DC, abruptly removed more than half of its train fleet from operation early on Monday morning due to a continuing problem with the wheels and axles that caused derailing last week.
The decision is expected to make daily travel and commuting for thousands of riders more difficult for an unspecified period of time while the National Transportation Safety Board investigates the matter.
Overnight, the Metro authority’s safety commission ordered the withdrawal of the whole 7000-series train route. Those were the newest set of trains in service which are from the Kawasaki 7000-series, with 748 cars accounting for almost 60 percent of the total fleet.
According to Jennifer Homendy, the NTSB Chair, a design defect was discovered that caused the trains’ wheels to expand too wide on the axles, allowing the carriage to fall off the tracks.
Homendy stated that the train system has been aware of the issue since 2017, but had not notified the NTSB. This year alone, there were 39 such failures, he added.
The general manager of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which administers the metropolitan D.C. transportation system, Paul J. Wiedefeld, apologised to commuters for the inconvenience caused and said that the cars will be out of service until at least Sunday and probably longer.
Post Your Comments