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Metrorail system to shut down for at least 24 hours beginning at midnight Metrorail system to shut down for at least 24 hours beginning at midnight
(about 3 hours later)
In an unprecedented move, officials will shut down entire Metrorail system for at least 24 hours starting at midnight tonight so that crews can inspect 600 electric cables in tunnels throughout the system, General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld announced at a late-afternoon news conference Tuesday. The entire Metrorail system shut down at midnight Tuesday for at least a full day in an unprecedented move by transit officials who said they acted because they feared for the safety of passengers of the nation’s second busiest subway system.
The unprecedented decision to shut down the system that thousands of commuters and school children depend on sent a shudder throughout the region, but Wiedefeld said it was the only way to ensure the safety of riders. The hope is that the inspections will be completed and that if nothing is found, the system can reopen early Thursday morning. The decision by new General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld and the Metro board to halt operations so workers could conduct emergency inspections of electric cables marked a nadir in Metro’s 40-year history and raised new alarms about its capacity to deliver safe, reliable service.
“While the risk to the public is very low, I cannot rule out a potential life safety issue here, and that is why we must take this action immediately,” Wiedefeld said. “When I say safety is our highest priority, I mean it. That sometimes means making tough, unpopular decisions, and this is one of those times. I fully recognize the hardship this will cause.” The paralysis of the core of Washington’s transportation network, announced Tuesday afternoon just a half-day before it was to take effect, sent a shudder through the region and sparked angry complaints about Metro’s inadequacies. Hundreds of thousands of commuters, school children and others made new plans to get around Wednesday.
But Wiedefeld said it was too risky to delay the safety checks after an electrical fire erupted early Monday and poured smoke into a Metro tunnel downtown.
The incident, caused by malfunctioning electric cables, was eerily reminiscent of the Yellow Line accident 14 months ago that resulted in the death of one passenger and sent scores to the hospital with smoke inhalation.
] Metro delays caused by cable problem similar to last year’s fatal smoke incident]
“While the risk to the public is very low, I cannot rule out a potential life safety issue here, and that is why we must take this action immediately,” said Wiedefeld, who took office in November. “When I say safety is our highest priority, I mean it. That sometimes means making tough, unpopular decisions, and this is one of those times. I fully recognize the hardship this will cause.”
Metrorail has closed before because of bad weather--like January’s blizzard — but never for safety reasons. During the shutdown, crews will inspect all 600 electric cables in tunnels throughout the system to ensure that they have sufficient insulation and are otherwise reliable.
The hope is that no problems will be found in the inspections, so the system can reopen at 5 a.m. Thursday. If problems are identified, however, then individual Metro lines or stations could remain closed Thursday and beyond.
The surprise announcement sent the federal government and local school districts scrambling to adjust.
The Office of Personnel Management granted all federal agencies in the region the option to allow employees to take unscheduled leave or telework.
No school systems closed because of the shutdown, but some officials expressed concern over how their teachers and other employees might get to work.
At D.C. schools, all tardies and absences will automatically count as excused. A good portion of D.C. students do not attend a neighborhood school, and rely on Metro to commute. Some charter also announced closures.
[LIVE updates on what will happen when the system shuts down][LIVE updates on what will happen when the system shuts down]
The move comes after an electrical fire early Monday in Metro tunnel caused huge delays on three subway lines. It involved the same type of track-based power cables that burned during last year’s fatal Yellow Line smoke incident that killed one person and sickened scores of others. Wiedefeld said that while the cables were inspected last year, given Monday’s smoke incident, he felt it important that they be re-examined. The shutdown did not affect Metrobus service. But transportation systems that feed to Metrorail, such as Maryland’s MARC trains and the Fairfax Connector bus service, were considering adjusting service Wednesday.
Asked why the shutdown could not be delayed until the weekend Wiedefeld said, “From where I sit the safety of the public and my employees is paramount.” The shutdown acted almost as an exclamation point after years of deterioration, mismanagement and safety lapses that have tarnished a subway system that once was an emblem of efficiency and source of regional pride.
However, if potentially dangerous cables are found in the inspections, Wiedefeld cautioned that the closure could be extended so that repairs can be made. Still, longtime critics of Metro’s shortcomings inside and outside government generally defended the decision on grounds that riders’ safety was the top concern.
Metro “has a long, well-documented list of safety issues and needs to work aggressively to fix them,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “While this shutdown is inconvenient, they are doing the right thing by putting the safety of their passengers and workers first.”
Foxx also used the occasion to urge the District, Maryland and Virginia to step up their efforts to exert safety oversight of Metro. In October, Foxx gave the Federal Transit Administration responsibility for safety oversight of Metro’s rail system. He said the body previously in charge of it, the Tri-State Oversight Committee, composed of representatives of the three jurisdictions, failed to do its job.
The three jurisdictions have agreed to set up a more powerful body, to be called a Metro Safety Commission. But that process has been delayed by as much as a year because neither Virginia nor Maryland moved to obtain necessary approval from their general assemblies in this year’s legislative sessions.
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it until the region takes real ownership of its safety oversight responsibilities: D.C., Maryland and Virginia need to stand up a permanent Metro safety office with real teeth,” Foxx said. “What are folks waiting for?”
Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) called the decision “an incredible disruption to everyone who uses Metrorail,” but added, “safety first must be a mandate.”
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said she was not privy to the information that led Metro leaders to close the rail system and that she wouldn’t second-guess the decision until she knew more, but Bowser said eventually she wants to know how Metro arrived at the point of needing a sudden and complete shutdown.
“Do we want to understand their decision-making to get to this point? Of course and we will get to those answers,” Bowser said. “Some of the questions I will have have to do with what options did they look at to do this? Is a 24-hour or 29-hour closure the only option?”
The shutdown was decided in an hourlong conference call starting at 2 p.m. with most Metro board members, where Wiedefeld recommended the immediate, one-day shutdown as the best option, officials said.
Board members raised concern and discussed other possibilities, but ended up endorsing the general manager’s view with little dissent.
The safety checks could have been delayed until the weekend, or conducted at night over a period of about six days, officials said.
But if the system were kept open, then some kind of public announcement of the risk would have to be made. That would have put passengers, and Metro, in the awkward position of acknowledging publicly that it was operating despite being aware of a potentially deadly safety problem.
Metro also would have been liable in the case of any crashes or calamities.
Metro officials offered no new details about the location or seriousness of Monday’s early-morning tunnel fire that snarled service on the Blue, Orange and Silver lines.
“The investigation into yesterday’s cable fire at McPherson Square is ongoing,” Wiedefeld said. “As a preliminary matter, the conditions appear disturbingly similar to those in the L’Enfant incident of a year ago, and our focus is squarely on mitigating any risk of a fire elsewhere on the system.”
The cable fires have “happened twice in a year,” and he couldn’t risk “a third time,” Wiedefeld said.
In an especially unnerving revelation, Wiedefeld confirmed that the cable that caught fire Monday had been inspected as part of a system-wide cable inspection following the Yellow Line fire--and passed. He said he had concerns about the results of that inspection.
Wiedefeld said 125 cables were replaced following the inspections.
A Metro official, who spoke condition he not be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said that the earlier cable inspections either were not conducted properly, or missed whatever problem caused the fires.
[What happened on Monday and the havoc it caused][What happened on Monday and the havoc it caused]
Pressure has been growing for a fix to the myriad problems that have plagued Metro since the January 2015 accident. That fatal calamity came six years after Metro pledged to put safety first following a fatal 2009 Red Line crash that killed nine people including a train operator. It only raised concerns that the system had made little progress.
A series of other service breakdowns, including an August derailment on a stretch of track that Metro officials knew for a month was problematic, and other management failures only raised concerns about the agency’s ability to provide safe, reliable service.
Even as many riders have turned away from the Metro system blaming almost weekly service disruptions, many thousands still depend on it to get to work. And with Wednesday’s shutdown they will be confronted with the unimaginable.Even as many riders have turned away from the Metro system blaming almost weekly service disruptions, many thousands still depend on it to get to work. And with Wednesday’s shutdown they will be confronted with the unimaginable.
“Tomorrow we will get a glimpse of what our nation’s capital will look like without this essential system,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va).“Tomorrow we will get a glimpse of what our nation’s capital will look like without this essential system,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va).
A full shutdown could have been avoided if the board had decided to conduct the safety checks over six days, a Metro official said. Other members of the region’s congressional delegation were also frustrated by the news.
But during an afternoon conference call, board members, with support from Wiedefeld, decided to shut it down entirely because of concern about Metro’s liability if an incident occurred before the safety checks were complete, the official said.
At the Tuesday afternoon press conference, Metro Board Chairman Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) spoke of his decision. “The most prudent thing is to close down the system and find out what we’re dealing with,” he said. “I am not willing to take a chance.”
[The biggest Metro meltdowns in the last several years]
Members of the region’s congressional delegation were clearly frustrated by the news.
“Today’s decision by General Manager Wiedefeld to shut down the Metrorail system for 24 hours is a gut punch to the hundreds of thousands of commuters who depend on the system,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.). “While I am extremely frustrated with this news, safety must be our number one priority. This dramatic action highlights the need for long-term safety and reliability improvements throughout the system.”“Today’s decision by General Manager Wiedefeld to shut down the Metrorail system for 24 hours is a gut punch to the hundreds of thousands of commuters who depend on the system,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.). “While I am extremely frustrated with this news, safety must be our number one priority. This dramatic action highlights the need for long-term safety and reliability improvements throughout the system.”
Members of the region’s Congressional delegation urged the Office of Personnel Management to allow unscheduled leave or allow federal workers, many of whom depend on Metro to get to work, to work from home. They also urged private employers to offer their workers flexibility. [Tracking Metro’s biggest meltdowns]
The Office of Personnel Management announced shortly after 6 p.m. that employees of federal offices in the Washington region can take unscheduled leave or telework Wednesday. D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), chair of the council’s transportation committee, said she received no official warning and learned of the news from the Internet when it leaked before the official announcement.
Daron Harris lives in Landover, Md. and commutes two and a half hours to George Washington University, via bus and the Orange Line. He said he has no idea how he is going to get to work Wednesday. A cab ride, he said, would put him back $53.
“It’s definitely going to impact my life,” said Harris, who works in maintenance. “I have no idea how I’m going to get to work tomorrow.”
Heather Bodenhamer, 24, was not surprised by the news of a Metro shutdown, given the transportation agency’s poor track record.
“There were so many times I was late to work,” she said. “It’s sad how unreliable it can be. You never know what’s going to happen.”
Bodenhamer said that during the past five years she’s experienced massive delays, smoke on the tracks and poor service all around. She used to travel from Rockville to Clarendon for work and had to leave her home two or three hours early in order to arrive to work on time due to daily Metro troubles.
Metro officials offered no new details about the location or seriousness of Monday’s early-morning tunnel fire that snarled service on the Blue, Orange and Silver lines, but the incident was similar enough to January 2015 smoke calamity that it raised concerns among Metro officials that it could happen again. In that incident, an electrical malfunction on tracks near L’Enfant Plaza filled a tunnel with smoke, engulfing a stalled Yellow Line train in fumes. Scores of passengers were sickened and one died of respiratory failure.
“The investigation into yesterday’s cable fire at McPherson Square is ongoing,” Wiedefeld said. “As a preliminary matter, the conditions appear disturbingly similar to those in the L’Enfant incident of a year ago, and our focus is squarely on mitigating any risk of a fire elsewhere on the system.”
An official in D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s office said she was alerted to the impending shutdown “in the 3 o’clock hour” and had little advance warning before news of the decision leaked publicly. “Obviously, we’re very disappointed,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because a formal statement from the mayor was forthcoming.
D.C. Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) and chair of the council’s transportation committee said she received no official warning and learned of the news from the Internet.
“The problem sounds mysterious and maybe this is a fairly dramatic step, but maybe it’s the kind of step that we need to get things right,” Cheh said. “I told the people in my office, ‘break out your bikes.’”“The problem sounds mysterious and maybe this is a fairly dramatic step, but maybe it’s the kind of step that we need to get things right,” Cheh said. “I told the people in my office, ‘break out your bikes.’”
So far, no local school systems have announced any closures related to the shutdown but some officials expressed concern over how their teachers and other employees might get to work. Metro Board Chairman Jack Evans, who took office in January, supported Wiedefeld’s action. “The most prudent thing is to close down the system and find out what we’re dealing with,” said Evans, who also is a D.C. Council member. “I am not willing to take a chance.”
This is the first non-weather-related shutdown of the rail system.
Wiedefeld said cables throughout the system were inspected last year and 125 were replaced. The cable that burned Monday was inspected as part of that earlier review and passed.
The inspection work requires inspectors to be on the ground close to the third rail, which provides power to the system. It could be done without a complete shutdown but the work would take more time, Wiedefeld said.
“The most prudent thing is to close down the system and find out what we’re dealing with,” said Metro Board Chairman Jack Evans. “I am not willing to take a chance.”
Aaron C. Davis, Faiz Siddiqui and Paul Duggan contributed to this report.
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