Metro says it expects to run normal service on the Red Line this afternoon following a morning of extensive delays caused by the discovery of three cracks in the rails.
Metro officials said the cracks were between the Bethesda and Friendship Heights stations. Trains heading in both directions had to share a single track between the Van Ness-UDC and Medical Center stations. That caused backups on the line from the time it opened at 5 a.m. until about 8 a.m., officials said.
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Metro officials said two of the three pieces of track where fractures were located have been fixed and the third spot will be replaced after Metrorail closes tonight. Officials said all trains are running normally and no delays are expected for the remainder of the day.
"We are sorry for the delays. We needed to act once the defective rail was identified. Unfortunately the repair work that had to be done took us into the time period when our system opened to the public," Steve Feil, Metro's chief operating officer for rail, said in a statement.
Also, this morning, Red Line customers had to get off a train at the Rhode Island Avenue station at about 7:45 a.m. because of a brake malfunction. Metro officials said the problem was unrelated to the track defect at the other end of the Red Line.
