A 7000-series railcar by the author.

Metro’s first plan needed before being able to return the 7000-series railcars to service has been submitted, WMATA General Manager Paul Wiedefeld said during the agency’s board meeting last Thursday. (Disclosure: Tracy Hadden Loh is GGWash’s Board Chair and serves on Metro’s Board. Loh had no input in this article.)

The plan, and its subsequent approval by the safety commission that oversees Metrorail, is the next step needed before Metro can get back to running normal rail service that’s been disrupted since a Blue Line train derailed in early October.

The Washington Metrorail Safety Commission (WMSC) ordered Metro to remove all of its 7000-series railcars from service after a Blue Line train derailed on October 12 outside Rosslyn.

The order included three parts:

  • Metro would need to stop using the railcars;
  • present a plan to test and validate that the cars are safe to return to service;
  • and create a second plan to guide how the cars could be safely returned to service.

Metro submitted its testing plan to the WMSC on Thursday, and the WMSC on Friday announced it had accepted the plan albeit with “additional revisions.” The safety oversight body said in a statement that they have “no technical objections to Metrorail’s revised test plan,” allowing testing to begin.

At issue, leading to the railcar fleet grounding, is that the wheels on some of Metro’s 7000-series cars have been slipping and moving out of place, potentially leading to a “catastrophic event” if the railcar were to come off the tracks. The wheel slippage issue dates back to 2017 when Metro began noticing the issue and subsequently instructed its railcar manufacturer to change how the wheels are secured to their axles.

Prior to the specification change, the wheels on Metro’s 7000-series railcars were pressed onto the axles with a lower range of force than the agency typically used. Metro, WMSC, and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) engineers performed an inspection of all 7000-series railcars after the derailment and found 20 out of almost 3,000 that showed signs the wheels were too far apart from each other.

The root cause of the Blue Line train derailment is still subject to NTSB investigation, and the agency has not yet named what they believe the issue to be. NTSB investigators are also examining the metals used to create the axles and wheels that were used for the 7000-series cars, according to the Post.

Here’s what Metro is testing

The testing plan submitted by Metro to the WMSC includes the use of two eight-car 7000-series trains and several thousands of miles run across the Metrorail system. Metro’s plan to gather data is to run the two trains - both consisting of a mix of railcars with axles produced under the original low tonnage specification and the newer higher tonnage one.

The purpose of the test, Metro hopes, is to validate their theory that they could catch dangerous wheel movement by inspecting every 7000-series railcar every eight days, which includes a “20% factor of safety”. Metro currently inspects their railcars every 90 days, and inspections for the rest of the fleet (the 2000, 3000, and 6000-series railcars) wouldn’t change.

Metro based its eight-day inspection interval on the fleet-wide inspection performed after the Blue Line derailment, according to the letter from Metro Chief Safety Officer Theresa Impastato which was transmitted to the WMSC when Metro submitted its testing plan for approval. Twenty axles failed their inspections, and the agency used data from those to calculate how much wheel movement its trains were potentially seeing on a daily basis to determine the worst-case wheel movement scenario..

Throughout November, the two test trains will each run on all of Metro’s six rail lines to rack up 4,800 miles under simulated operating conditions. The cars will be loaded with weights simulating riders, and run multiple times each day across the system. They’ll stop at all stations like normal trains would, although their doors won’t open.

After 12 days of testing, Metro plans to complete a preliminary analysis of the data gathered at that point to determine what the agency needs to do to move forward with trying to return the 7000’s to service. If the data looks good, the test trains will continue running and gathering data until they meet the 4,800-mile set goal. While that’s occurring, the agency will develop its plan for safely returning the 7000’s to service, including any new inspection standards and procedures that might be required. The WMSC would have to approve a plan defining how to return the 7000-series railcars to service.

The process for taking the “back to back” inspection measurement, which shows how far apart on the axle the two wheels are, is already going to look different. Metro Chief Operating Officer Joe Leader noted at a Board of Directors meeting in October that the agency was bringing in an outside consultant to oversee the process.

The return to service plan would provide more details about how the consultants play into the process going forward, and other changes that might be required.

Some service to date restored, but no end in sight

Metro was able to restore some additional service on Monday, November 8, given that more railcars are now available than there were just weeks ago. Train frequencies on the Red and Yellow lines were bumped up compared to last week. While there are still fewer trains than typical, there are more than there were after the derailment.

The agency also has a couple eight-car trains running in-service on the Blue Line for those going to the events at Arlington National Cemetery this week.

Service to all rail lines was originally significantly disrupted after the derailment, with all trains running every 30 minutes at best. The 7000-series railcars make up 60% of Metro’s fleet, and the agency is unable to run normal service while the cars remain out of service.

Metro’s initial plan for returning service across the system. Image from WMATA.

The agency was able to bump up some service beginning in November; Red Line train headways decreased from 30 to 15; Green Line trains began running every 20 instead of every 30; and Silver Line trains again ran to Largo instead of turning at Federal Center SW.

Service restoration has been slow, and multiple factors have played into the agency’s attempts to restore service. Thirty-two railcars were left in Shady Grove Rail Yard when the Rockville canopy replacement project began, and the cars were inaccessible for service. Metro recently paused work on the project to get those cars out.

The agency’s 2000-series cars have also been slow to come out of “cold storage,” the long-term storage they entered during the coronavirus pandemic because of the lower need for railcars since Metro cut service back in March 2020. Returning each car to service requires inspections and sometimes maintenance work to replace components (rubber seals, etc.) that have worn out over time.

The 6000-series cars also mostly have not been available for service since those were grounded after two trains pulled apart on the Red Line in 2020. The agency slowly began trying to put these back into service in September and hoped to have all back for service by the end of 2021.

We don’t know when normal service will resume

Metro has not stated when service might return to normal, nor does the agency likely have a date in mind - at least, not until data from the ongoing test plan is collected. The agency says it expects current service to remain through the rest of the month, at very least.

Under the very most optimistic scenario, it could be possible that normal service resumes during December. The testing plan would have to wrap up at the end of this month, Metro would have to gain swift approval from the WMSC, and then perform the steps needed to implement the new inspection schedule and get the 7000’s running again.

Under a more realistic scenario, normal service would look more likely to resume closer to or during January. Some back and forth between Metro, the WMSC, and possibly even the NTSB would likely need to occur after the testing plan is complete, necessitating additional coordinating time before the cars could return to service.

No timelines have been set out by any party at this point.

Stephen Repetski is a Virginia native and has lived in the Fairfax area for over 20 years. He has a BS in Applied Networking and Systems Administration from Rochester Institute of Technology and works in Information Technology. Learning about, discussing, and analyzing transit (especially planes and trains) is a hobby he enjoys.