UPDATE – Thursday – 1/30/2014, 5 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON – Metro has found the root of the problem that caused trains to single track along the Red Line between Shady Grove and Twinbrook.
A misaligned third rail was put back in place near the Twinbrook station, and trains are now running again, says Metro’s Dan Stessel.
EARLIER – Thursday – 1/30/14, 12:33 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON – A new problem on Metro’s Red Line is causing trains to single track between Shady Grove and Twinbrook.
Crews are inspecting two trains that went down back-to back-near the Shady Grove Metro stop Thursday morning.
The 15 passengers on the first train and 18 passengers on the second have made their way to their destinations, but meanwhile Metro spokesman Dan Stessel says crews are working to figure out what happened.
It may be a crack in the third electrified rail, he says. A number of collector shoes, which are attached to each car and run along the third rail to power the cars, have fallen off, he says.
Inspectors are walking the line, collecting the shoes, which are designed to fall off if they catch anything, he says. They are looking for the root problem that’s causing the shoes to separate from the cars.
Multiple cars along the Red Line are out of service because they’ve lost their collecter shoes, Stessel says.
Metro has called in inspectors from other lines to assist on finding the problem and attaching the shoes, so the trains can be up and running by the Thursday afternoon rush hour.
They can’t rule out that cold temperatures played a role in the issue, Stessel says.
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