Metro tracks might be contributing to 7000-series safety issue

The consultant’s report, the fee said, cited difficulties with the assembly of rail car wheels and axles, and with “restraining rails” in the Metro method.

The revelation from the protection fee raises questions about the in general safety of the rail procedure and whether its tracks are contributing to rail car wheels transferring apart, creating trains a lot more susceptible to derailments. It comes as the suspension of Metro’s most up-to-date educate collection has ushered in prolonged waits for commuters, hurting attempts to lure back again riders amid a change to telework.

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An investigation by the National Transportation Protection Board past tumble found that the wheel challenge appeared in about 50 of Metro’s 7000-sequence rail automobiles more than four years, prompting the safety fee to get the series out of assistance. The vehicles are Metro’s most advanced model and previously had the fleet’s cleanest security report. The transit technique has 748 of the rail automobiles.

It’s not recognised why Metro’s monitor challenges weren’t dealt with, but interior critiques at the agency lifted the subject as a short while ago as final yr, in accordance to the security commission. Metro declined to respond to issues about the report or its conclusions but tweeted a statement assuring riders the transit program is safe.

“Our total fleet is regularly inspected to deem our rail vehicles secure for passenger company,” the assertion mentioned. “We continue to work with the [safety commission] as component of the NTSB investigation on the 2021 Blue Line derailment.”

Even though the discoveries provide a new dimension to the investigation into the derailment, basic safety fee spokesman Max Smith mentioned the monitor concerns never pose a new menace to riders. He called the concern with the restraining rail — found in observe switches or turnouts that enable trains maneuver on curves — one particular aspect of what could be causing wheel actions.

“The [rail] program is a complicated interaction of methods,” he explained. “It’s not like there’s one particular matter you would correct and that would deal with the problems, essentially.”

It is unclear how prolonged wheel protection difficulties have been surfacing or what styles have been cited for obtaining unsafe wheels. Smith mentioned the 2015 report cited additional than 30 occasions of wheel movements — instances that experienced not been publicly disclosed until eventually Tuesday.

Formerly, one other automobile outdoors the 7000 collection was publicly acknowledged to have skilled wheel problems. In December, the protection fee reported that a 6000-series auto — the 7000 series’s predecessor that was built by a diverse organization — experienced a challenge with wheelsets widening. Metro officials at the time stated the issue was unrelated to the defect in the 7000 collection.

Basic safety commission chief govt David L. Mayer said Tuesday that the 2015 report came to mild for the duration of the investigation into the 7000-series autos. The protection commission experienced been unaware of the report, which was introduced three a long time just before Congress established the fee to oversee protection on the rail program.

Mayer reported existing Metro observe engineering leadership also acquired of the report through the investigation.

The report, Mayer mentioned, identified complications in how car or truck wheels and axles are put jointly and with the sum of drive the tracks area on wheel flanges — the rims built of steel or other metal that retain cars and trucks on tracks.

Russell Quimby, a railroad incident specialist who labored as an NTSB investigator for far more than two decades, reported Metro’s turnouts or switches could have flangeways that are far too slim or additional restrictive than they need to be. Not only can the anxiety bring about wheels to widen on their axles, he explained, but it leads to avoidable don on wheels and boosts routine maintenance costs.

“Those flangeways are putting stress on all those wheels,” he claimed. “This appears like a screw-up by the keep track of department, to be honest with you.”

Following the engineering report was introduced seven years back, Mayer reported, the transit company requested a change in motor vehicle wheel requirements and to the power with which wheels are pressed onto axles. It asked for the alterations from Kawasaki Rail Vehicle, which was production the 7000 series at a plant in Lincoln, Neb.

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No alterations were being manufactured to autos that by now had been finished, Mayer mentioned.

“This usually means that the new specifications utilized to roughly the ultimate one-third of the 7000 sequence cars and trucks Metrorail accepted, and not to the initial two-thirds of the 748 autos,” he mentioned. “Metrorail did not handle the other discovered item in its wheel migration report — a problem with flangeway width on restraining rails in the course of the technique.”

The 2015 report referred to as for adjustments to the rail flangeway widths on the keep track of, Mayer mentioned. Placing the correct width “is essential to guaranteeing that no unnecessary pressure is placed on the wheel flange by a restraining or guard rail,” he stated. The report, he mentioned, indicated that the pressure utilized to wheels from “these improperly put restraining rails” can lead to wheels to change aside.

Metro officers did not answer to issues about why the changes weren’t made. An internal critique in June of get the job done performed in 2021 and 2020 uncovered that excellent assurance inspectors have questioned Metro’s criteria for its restraining rails, contacting for the company to perform an engineering analyze and update keep track of-style and design conditions centered on the benefits.

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Metro officials have said in new months that a variety of aspects could possibly be contributing to the wheel protection challenge. That is one motive the safety fee has minimal which strains can host up to 20 of the returning 7000-series trains — a complete of 160 rail vehicles — a measure created to allow both agencies to review its outcomes on the automobiles.

“Available details carries on to counsel there are a number of contributing components to this wheel migration on 7000 collection cars and trucks, such as components that could differ across identical elements of the Metrorail program,” Mayer stated. “Line restrictions are critical to make certain that far too a lot of variables are not changed at the exact same time, so that info gathered on wheel migration or deficiency thereof can be effectively evaluated.”

The security fee has permitted the returning 7000-sequence trains on the Environmentally friendly and Purple lines, as perfectly as on the Yellow Line, which is temporarily shut for a bridge and tunnel undertaking. Mayer stated Tuesday that the safety commission cited Metro on Sept. 7 for placing a 7000-sequence practice on the Blue Line for additional than an hour.

The defect that leads to wheels to shift progresses slowly and gradually, investigators and authorities say. It does not impact all cars and surfaces only right after prolonged use.

The basic safety commission has authorized Metro to return some autos to service in phases under an settlement that Metro inspects the automobiles right after four days of use. No automobiles have demonstrated signals of the defect considering the fact that Metro has returned them to provider.

Metro Common Supervisor Randy Clarke has claimed returning all 748 cars and trucks is one of Metro’s greatest priorities. He stated transit engineers continue to operate on setting up and screening an automatic wayside inspection system that Metro hopes will expedite wheel screenings now carried out manually by Metro workers.

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Safety commission officers explained Metro has not submitted ideas to use the automatic program, which will have to be authorized by the fee.

The NTSB carries on to investigate the cause, origin and circumstances bordering the defect. Equally Metro and the security fee are members in the probe.

NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway reported Tuesday that the company experienced nothing new to launch about Metro’s monitor troubles.