Green Line Derailment
- Posted by ryan on January 7th, 2007 filed in In the News
This afternoon, a Green Line train derailed at Mount Vernon Square. The Washington Post notes:
It appeared that the derailment occurred as the train was passing over a switch that can shift trains from inbound to outbound tracks.
I mention this because last night, as we were returning home from the Mayor’s inaugural ball, we were forced to wait about ten minutes while a train paused in the tunnel just out of the Mount Vernon Square station. According to an announcement over the PA, there was a problem with the switching mechanism. From where we were standing, a man was clearly down on the tracks with a flashlight examining the problem. Eventually, however, the man came back up, the train entered the station, and we were able to continue on our way.
I have no way of knowing if last night’s switching problem was the same issue that caused today’s accident, but if it was, then Metro was clearly aware that something was wrong last night, but allowed trains to continue operating anyway. It would have been very annoying to have Metro one tracking last night, especially given the presence of the ball at the convention center, but it certainly seems it would have been worth the trouble to suspend service in that direction while the problem was sorted out given the end result.
January 8th, 2007 at 10:15 am
Hi Ryan,
I was on that same train Saturday night, in the first car and also made the connection between the incident and Sunday’s derailment. Did you hear the hammering? It sounded like he was whacking the switch with a hammer.
-T
January 8th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
ditto… was on a northbound yellow train just before MVS at 9:33p.m. for at least 10 minutes. i know the exact time due to a text message i sent. the operator seemed to have done something outside the train himself as he was totally out of breath when he made one of his announcements.
January 9th, 2007 at 11:36 am
[…] You know, it’s completely possible that Metro’s Series 5000 cars are worth investigating in the latest Metro derailment incident. It could be that, given track issues, those cars are more likely to derail than others, and they should therefore be subject to scrutiny. But it remains the case that there was something wrong with the tracks in question on Saturday night. And Metro knew about it. I observed this, and at least two others did, as well. It seems to me that the primary focus of the investigation ought to be that Metro was a aware of a track problem nearly 18 hours prior to the derailment and yet did nothing. Mainstream media, please oblige me with investigatory actions. […]
January 10th, 2007 at 10:25 am
WMATA has in their service report from Saturday, “9:19 p.m. An outbound Yellow Line train at Mount Vernon Square was delayed because of a mechanical problem on the track.” Some kind of incident/report record must exist at WMATA. Hopefully their investigation will look at this is a possible cause/contributing factor.
January 10th, 2007 at 10:37 am
I’ve contacted Metro about the issue, and I’m hoping to hear back from them today. Will relay the response.