Metro wants to be able to run more 7000-series trains. It needs oversight approval to do that.

Metro hopes to be able to run more of its 7000-series trains in service, according to a proposal summary shared with the agency’s Board of Directors. The proposed changes would ease the inspection burden on Metro’s railcar maintenance staff and would increase the number of railcars and trains available to be used in service.

Metro’s 7000-series trains have mostly been grounded since the October, 2021 derailment between Arlington Cemetery and Rosslyn. The agency won restoration of up to eight 7000-series trains and began running some in June. The 748 cars make up 60% of the Metrorail fleet, and trains have been running less frequently on all lines than they would otherwise be if all cars were available for use.

Theresa Impastato, Metro’s chief safety officer, reported Friday, August 5 to the agency’s Board of Directors* that the agency had submitted a revision of its 7000-series Return To Service (RTS) plan to the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission (WMSC), the independent safety oversight body responsible for overseeing Metrorail safety.

The update proposes to make three changes to the existing plan:

• Decreasing the wheelset inspection interval from once every service day to once every seven service days
• Allowing all 7000-series to operate, not just cars 7500 and above - but still excluding cars that had failed wheelset inspections in the past
• Allowing Metro to run up to 35 7000-series trains in passenger service per day

Under the current approved RTS plan, Metro is allowed to run up to eight 7000-series trains in service any one day, and the agency is expected to inspect the wheelsets on each one before they go out into service again. The daily inspections are used to ensure that the train wheels haven’t moved on their axles since the prior day. If they have, the railcar fails the inspection and won’t be allowed to go out.

The WMSC said in its monthly meeting on Tuesday, August 9 that it had received “drafts of proposed revisions to the current Return to Service plan for discussion.”

The daily inspection has been a limitation for the number of trains that Metro can send out into service on a daily basis. The agency has previously said that inspecting the wheelsets on a train takes about 3-4 hours, and there are limited locations and employees with which the inspections can be done. Prior to the derailment, Metro standards called for inspecting wheelsets on its railcars every 90 days.

Metro is hoping to be able to transition from the manual wheel inspections to an automated inspection system, but would similarly need to win approval from the WMSC to put that into use. The WMSC says the agency is currently “working to validate” the system.

The agency initially proposed weekly wheelset inspections when first attempting to return the cars to service back in January, but then increased the inspection interval to daily after meeting with their safety consultant, TTCI. No explanation for the change was given at the time, and Metro did not respond to an emailed question from Greater Greater Washington asking why the agency now wants to revert from 1- to 7-day inspection intervals.

In addition, Metro is proposing to be able to use all of its 7000-series railcars, rather than just the 248 cars numbered 7500 through 7748. The agency set the limitation in its previous RTS plan presumably due to the construction specification difference between the two sets. The press tonnage used to secure the wheels onto their axles of the cars below 7500 was lower than that of the other cars, and has been one of the factors being investigated as part of the derailment.

Expanding the size of the fleet available for service will make the agency’s life easier. Instead of having to store the lower-numbered cars and juggle around them in the shops and yards, Metro would be able to use all cars. The only ones which would remain unavailable for use are the 56 that have failed wheelset inspections in the past since 2017.

Increasing the fleet availability and decreasing the inspection interval makes it easier for Metro to reach their third proposed plan change: running up to 35 7000-series trains in daily service. This would be an addition of 27.

With 27 additional 7000-series trains available for use, Metro would be able to significantly restore train frequencies on all lines, closer to the 10- and 12-minute service that the agency has in its approved budget, rather than the 15-minute weekday and 20-minute weekend service at which most lines currently operate.

Metro declined to say what train frequencies might be or when frequencies would be increased if the RTS plan update is approved.

*Disclosure: GGWash Board of Directors chair Tracy Hadden Loh is also on WMATA’s board. In keeping with our editorial policy, board members maintain no oversight of editorial decision-making.