WASHINGTON — Metro announced just before 5 a.m. Thursday that rail service has resumed on all lines.
Metro announced the reopening after an unprecedented daylong shutdown that saw the agency spend Wednesday inspecting 600 underground jumper cables in around 100 miles of subway tunnels.
Signs at the Vienna station greeted passengers with the news in the predawn hours, and commuters who had to find another way to get to work seemed relieved that operations were back to normal. One Orange Line rider Thursday morning told WTOP’s Neal Augenstein that “I’m glad to know they took the time out to do the inspection and make sure the public is safe.”
The region had to struggle through Wednesday without the nation’s second-busiest subway system, which carries about 700,000 people per day.
The shutdown threatened a traffic jam of legendary proportions on roads heading into and out of D.C. on Wednesday, but WTOP Traffic Reporter Bob Marbourg says that conditions had been worse during various heavy weather conditions.
On the sluglines in Woodbridge Thursday morning, drivers and sluggers said that the shutdown had them bracing for a major impact. But many said that the Metro shutdown had sped up their Wednesday commutes, since more drivers were on the roads looking for slugs.
“Yesterday was good for me, because the person came early,” said Cindy Bembry, of Manassas.
Bridget Malone, of Woodbridge, works at Veterans Affairs and says a lot of her co-workers stayed home and/or teleworked.
She said that the Thursday-morning scene was “a little bit busier. I think everyone is still a bit leery about the Metro being shut down.””
An electrical cable caught fire on Monday near the McPherson Square station, leading to single-tracking and major delays. General Manager Paul Wiedefeld ordered the shutdown on Tuesday, saying that that cable problem was similar to the one that caused the January 2015 smoke incident outside the L’Enfant Plaza station, which killed a woman and sent dozens to the hospital.
Wiedefeld said on Wednesday evening that crews had identified 26 spots where damaged jumper cables and connector boots needed to be replaced, including three cables that were so badly frayed that they would not have risked running trains over them. These “showstoppers” — Metro’s term for them — were near the McPherson Square, Foggy Bottom and Potomac Avenue stations.
Metro GM Paul Wiedefeld: This is a frayed cable … this is why the system was shut down. pic.twitter.com/rH6XnzuUB6
— WTOP (@WTOP) March 16, 2016
A video from Metro of the cable inspection:
