Unsuck DC Metro: Riders Trapped Yet Again in Another Derailment Close Call

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Riders Trapped Yet Again in Another Derailment Close Call

From Chris:

I enjoyed being trapped on Metro's Red Line last night (April 22) for over 35 minutes on a broken down train just outside Van Ness station.

We were told by operator, we were single tracking but that wasn't the case. We were finally off-loaded through one of the last cars, apparently there was a track issue or a wheel had derailed. But of course Metro never told us what was going on.

Plus the rude Metro workers just made the evening/morning so much fun.

According to a Metro source, the train ran a red light at the Van Ness-UDC interlocking at around 11:30 p.m.

"They had to let people out of the back of the train, then back the train up," the source said. "The train stopped before hitting the 3 switch, which was laying for a reverse move, which would have derailed the train."

Comments (17)

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+28 Vote up Vote down

@JimLCunningham · 622 weeks ago

"Plus the rude Metro workers just made the evening/morning so much fun."

They were rude because you inconvenienced them.

3 replies · active 622 weeks ago

-10 Vote up Vote down

Concerned · 622 weeks ago

No they were rude because the author is racist. Cant' you tell? He put them all into one derogatory category called "Metro workers".

+11 Vote up Vote down

chris · 622 weeks ago

So I'm rude and I'm of the same race as the 2 people who were rude. Good one, know your facts dumb ass!

+3 Vote up Vote down

Matt G · 622 weeks ago

It's clear that you both apparently believe in slavery.

+20 Vote up Vote down

F'n JD · 622 weeks ago

We need to demand from our elected leaders the right to elect members of the WMATA Board directly. Currently its political cronyism by an absentee board that fails to ride the system. It's time to make these positions elected officials responsible to US, the riding public.

1 reply · active 622 weeks ago

+6 Vote up Vote down

jkuchen · 622 weeks ago

In all seriousness, I'm trying to figure out how direct election of the Board is going to help matters any. Do you think that the average voter is going to pay attention to what the candidate has done or how they are qualified for the job? It'll be worse than the Soil and Water Conservation District elections!

+23 Vote up Vote down

bullsumner · 622 weeks ago

I'm just utterly baffled at how Metro reliability seems to continually degrade. I've ridden for about 11 years and perhaps I'm selectively remembering rosier times back then, but comparing then to now in my mind, I simply cannot remember Metro being this unreliable back then. Just this past Monday I was on my usual early morning train out of Franconia when a bad switch caused moderate delays and single tracking, making me about 20-30 minutes late. That afternoon as I walked into Capitol South, there was a disabled train, again causing single tracking and increasing my commute home by about 30-40 minutes. It was my own fault for not doing a last minute email check for a Metro alert, but I am really reaching the point of just being speechless about the crumbling Metro, all I can do is shake my head, sigh, and try to endure.

4 replies · active 621 weeks ago

+12 Vote up Vote down

Veteran Rider · 622 weeks ago

I've ridden Metro since the day it opened, and I can say that it's always had reliability issues. In its early days it became a joke to blame Metro for being late to anything, even if you hadn't riddent the train. However, the difference between then and now is that in those days, Metro actually seemed to care that they had problems, and appeared interested in fixing them. There was improvement; that might be the era you are remebering. Nowadays, it's clear that Metro as an organization doesn't care that they've taken an $11Billion system and are letting if degrade and fail. I know that there are Metro employees who work hard and want Metro to be the best again; they have my sympathy - it must be hard to work for an organization with leadership that just doesn't care, and lets everyone know it.
Elected Board members now!

+14 Vote up Vote down

SCR · 622 weeks ago

One shouldn't have to check for status updates before leaving the house. It's ridiculous, frankly, and embarrassing to have such a third-world system in a first-world city.

I rode the Prince William County PRTC buses from Manassas into Downtown DC every day for a good few months last month. There was only one issue the whole time, and there was an alert in my inbox by 4AM that allowed me to decide to work from home that day. The buses I caught tended to arrive a few minutes early, and would wait at the bus stop until their slated departure time. This isn't hard. WMATA doesn't have that kind of foresight.

+12 Vote up Vote down

Hal · 622 weeks ago

"It was my own fault for not doing a last minute email check for a Metro alert."

In my experience, these aren't always reliable or timely. I get the best updates from following Unsuck on twitter, as he retweets relevant #WMATA chatter about delays, crowded stations, etc. Likewise, when I'm experiencing delays I try to tweet them with the WMATA hashtag to help other riders. There have been countless times where I'm holding on the tracks for over 10 minutes between every station and the website/app/wmata twitter insists everything is rosy.

0 Vote up Vote down

serious · 621 weeks ago

What I wouldn't do to go back to the days when ATC gently rocked me to sleep...

+25 Vote up Vote down

Stan Dessel · 622 weeks ago

There was no derailment.

You're welcome!

+6 Vote up Vote down

Matt G · 622 weeks ago

Duh, it's impossible for trains to run red signals. That's why is OK for the operators to text and drive. Said no one, ever.

+13 Vote up Vote down

Matt · 622 weeks ago

This story makes no sense (shocking)

I can totally understand running the red signal. I can totally understand that coming close to derailing. Thankfully the train stopped before that happened. How or why this happened has numerous possibilities, and it is too soon to judge the operator. There are cases where the operator is given instructions to proceed past a signal by central. And there are cases where the operator passed it by accident. Impossible to say which right now, and either is equally possible and equally unacceptable. Quite likely Metro will never say, and will pretend nobody did anything wrong.

What isn't making sense is that they had to take the train out of service and offload passengers before it could be moved. This says to me that something did indeed happen to that train that made it unsuitable for revenue service. So Metro saying that nothing happened, then having the train be unsuitable for revenue service, seems to be contradictory.

So what really happened? We will probably never know.

1 reply · active 621 weeks ago

0 Vote up Vote down

uneducatedGuess · 621 weeks ago

As far as I understand/assume, the train is purposely " derailed" when it runs a red signal ( if whatever it is-I assume the switch- has not been overridden).

+10 Vote up Vote down

Dezlboy · 622 weeks ago

If Metro can't ensure that patrons can hear and understand station manager and operator verbal instructions or information after 20 plus years, then Metro shouldn't be expected to get anything else right.

I really really really hate riding Metro subway.

+3 Vote up Vote down

Dave Alturd · 622 weeks ago

Maybe everyone should decide to BIKE instead. It's less pollution and more healthy.

I think these people who were stuck probably voted for more cars on our road. So they deserve it.

read my blog!