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Aye Aye Aye - Here we go again, DC Red Line derails as wheels come off

Posted on February 12, 2010 by admin

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A six-car Red Line train headed in the direction of Shady Grove Metrorail station has reportedly derailed near the Farragut North Metrorail station. There are no reported injuries.

The incident marks the second major DC Metro accident in less than a year. During the Monday evening rush hour of June 22nd of 2009 a DC Metro train crashed into another one right in front of it. That accident killed 9 people. It was the worst accident in the DC Metro rail system’s 33 year history.

The DC Metro, MARTA in Atlanta, and BART in the San Francisco Bay Area, were all developed and built in the 70s by Westinghouse, which created the ROHR cars. With the DC Metro’s two accidents in the past year, maybe it’s time to ask if these systems are in need of a major overhaul.

Metro’s statement in full:

A six-car Red Line train headed in the direction of Shady Grove Metrorail station has reportedly derailed near the Farragut North Metrorail station. There are no reported injuries.

Metro officials and local first responders are at the scene to investigate and to safely get customers off of the train and to the station.

The preliminary report is that the front wheels of lead car is the one that came off the tracks. The incident took place at 10:13 a.m.

“Fortunately our reports are that there have been no injuries,” Metro spokeswoman Lisa Faberstein. “The front wheels of the front car came off the tracks. We do not know how it happened.”

Faberstein said the six-car train was likely filled with passengers, given the late start of the workday for federal workers after the region was hit by a blizzard on Wednesday. She said Metro was evacuating passengers after they cut electricity to the line and that they would be escorted by walking onthe tracks to the station platform.

“It’s early for us to know what exactly happened,” she told the television station.