WASHINGTON — Metro will announce on Thursday that it has completed work on 10 action items it unveiled in January to address safety after the deadly incident at L’Enfant Plaza, sources tell WTOP.
Among the items Metro will announce it finished is the inspection of all 2,640 jumper cables in underground locations. Also, it will discuss the need for protective covers on third-rail jumper cables and changing over to low-smoke, zero-halogen cables.
The current jumper cables were due to be replaced because they can emit a hazardous vapor into the air when they are burning; now, the process can be expedited.
The National Transportation Safety Board has already found that smoke was being filtered into the tunnel and toward the stranded train during the Jan. 12 incident, in which Carol Glover died from smoke inhalation.
Metro will also announce a series of emergency drills with first responders, including two in the spring in Maryland and the District. Metro hopes to have drills in each jurisdiction over the next three years.
As for the trains, Metro plans to install new signs on the exterior to direct first responders to the emergency doors at the center of each car. Trains already have an exterior lever on the emergency doors that first responders can pull to open the doors. Passenger doors on each end of the train are not meant to be opened in an emergency.
Also, Metro will release two reports on Thursday. One will be an analysis of whether to run trains at 45 mph in the inner core. Typically, Metro trains travel at 59 mph at full speed. Metro sometimes slows trains to 35 or 40 mph to prevent cracked rails in extreme cold or heat, but the reduction in the inner core would most likely be considered to reduce the stress on the third rail and the jumper cables.
Another report will focus on different technologies to better detect smoke and determine its precise location.
Metro tells WTOP it’s working closely with the NTSB and the Federal Transit Administration on the safety of the system.
