Metro Blames Mechanical Failures

By Lena H. Sun
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Metro officials said the unsettling series of smoke and fire incidents that halted train travel throughout much of the system for two nights probably was caused by power and equipment failure and not sabotage, underscoring the agency's difficulty in maintaining and operating the aging rail line as ridership grows.

For a brief period Monday night, 11 of Metro's 86 stations, many in Northern Virginia, were closed temporarily. The unusually large number of serious incidents in such a short time and over two consecutive nights initially led Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. to question whether the events were more than accidents. But yesterday, he ruled out terrorism or sabotage.

"We have no evidence of intentional acts by anyone to harm our system," he said.

Instead, Metro's most recent difficulties highlight one of its biggest issues -- maintaining its worn equipment, such as its power substations, signaling and communications systems, and track beds. Some of the fires, for example, were caused by smoldering insulators that heated up because they were damaged by water or were coated with grime. The 31-year-old system has about 250,000 such insulators, which are attached to the electrified third rail that powers the trains.

"Metro has been expanding its [rail] system and purchasing new vehicles," Catoe said at an afternoon news conference. "The result of those expenditures with limited funds means the agency did not spend sufficient funds in maintaining the infrastructure."

Bills are pending in Congress that would give Metro $1.5 billion over 10 years to fund capital improvements. But one of the bill's key sponsors in the House, Virginia Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, the top Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, called yesterday for the committee to hold an investigative hearing into the incidents.

Catoe said he welcomes the chance to explain to Congress "the urgency of the need for funding" for the transit agency, which carries large numbers of federal workers daily. Average weekday ridership is about 700,000 trips, and in July, more people rode Metro than in any month in the agency's history.

Catoe apologized to riders and said the agency is taking short- and long-term steps to address power and maintenance issues. "The issues that caused the failures on Sunday and Monday are issues we will fix, but it will take time," he said. He also said the agency will investigate the cause of each of the incidents.

For two straight nights, service on the Yellow, Blue and Green lines stopped or was disrupted because of the power, fire and smoke problems. The incidents forced hundreds of disgruntled passengers off crowded trains to look for shuttle buses.

Catoe said it is likely that a power surge, which might have been caused by lightning, blew a transformer at the Potomac Yard substation Sunday evening, near Reagan National Airport, sparking small fires and sapping power to trains on the track. Metro officials did not immediately consider that incident to be the root cause of the problem until similar power problems recurred during the Monday evening commute. The transformer loss put stress on two other substations that were operating below capacity because they were being upgraded.

Officials were unable to explain, however, why trains were able to run on the Blue and Yellow lines during the day Monday without any apparent problems.

An unrelated problem with a bolt caused sparks and smoke at the U Street-Cardozo station on the Green Line about the same time as the power loss on the Blue and Yellow lines Monday night. Officials said the bolt, which anchors the electric third rail to the ground, had become worn. It overheated, causing the surrounding rubber coating to smoke and burn. That closed the station.

The agency planned to reconfigure power last night to compensate for the blown transformer. Trains between the Pentagon City and Braddock Road stations on the Yellow and Blue lines in Northern Virginia were running eight minutes apart instead of the normal six minutes during the evening rush and slowing to speeds of 35 mph because of lower power levels.

Officials have found a replacement transformer -- which weighs several tons and is about the size of a small RV -- for the Potomac Yard station, but it will take several weeks to install.

For the longer term, Catoe said he would ask the Metro board next month for $25 million to $30 million in capital funds to accelerate an ongoing plan to upgrade the system's 98 power substations. Part of the money could be transferred from other projects, and some would be new, he said.

The upgrade is designed to give the agency enough power to operate half its fleet as eight-car trains. Most trains are six cars long, but Metro hoped the recent purchase of rail cars would allow for more eight-car trains.

Catoe also wants to expand the agency's ability to detect corrosion and identify stray electric current on the entire 106-mile system, rather than fix problems as they arise. The agency wants to buy a special rail car that could be outfitted with a thermal imaging camera to find rail flaws. Metro has one such camera, but it must be carried up and down the tracks by a worker.

These types of improvements, Catoe said, take major investment and resources that Metro does not have.

Although Metro officials scrambled to figure out what had happened, riders seemed to be taking the incidents in stride yesterday. As they boarded the trains in the morning, some expressed resignation; others concern and frustration.

Roger Alexander, 48, a lawyer in downtown Washington who has been commuting on Metro for 10 years, said he was not surprised to hear of Metro's latest troubles. "And they're talking about raising fares?" Alexander asked while waiting for a Red Line train at Judiciary Square. "A fare increase is warranted when good service is provided."

Staff writers Joe Holley, Mary Beth Sheridan, Elissa Silverman, Theola Labb? and Jonathan Mummolo and researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.