WMATA Failed To Report Wheel Assembly Failures On Metro Trains Going Back To 2017

WASHINGTON, DC — The Metrorail train that derailed last Tuesday on the Blue Line in Virginia had experienced two earlier derailments that same day, according to an official with the National Transportation and Safety Board, which is investigating the incident.

At 4:51 p.m. on Oct. 12, Train 407, which consisted of eight 7000 Series cars, derailed between the Rosslyn and Arlington Cemetery stations. The train was heading southbound on track two toward the Huntington Station with 187 passengers on board.

"What is significant for us is that the derailment just south of Rosslyn was the last of at least three known derailments of Train 407 that that train experienced that day," said NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy, during a Monday morning news conference.

Train 407 may even have had more derailments that same day or even on previous days, Homendy added.

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Through its investigation of the derailment, NTSB learned that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) was aware of potential problems with the wheel and axle assembles of its Series 7000 trains since at least 2017.

WMATA told inspectors that Metro trains had experienced two failures of their wheel assembles in both 2017 and 2018, four failures in 2019, five in 2020, and 18 in 2021.

"That was before Friday, and that totaled 31," she said. "Adding to that number are the failures that were uncovered as a result of their inspections, which were initiated on Friday, which uncovered, so far, an additional 21 failures."

In all, Homendy said the Series 7000 cars had experienced 39 failures in 2021 for a total of 52 failures since 2017. She added that those were preliminary numbers.

"Of the 748 cars in the series, they have inspected 514, so that number could go up," Homendy said.

On the day of the derailment, Train 407 entered service on the Blue Line at the Franconia-Springfield Station. It stayed on that line until 11 a.m., when it switched over to the Silver Line until 3 p.m. At that point, it switched back to Blue Line service.

After departing Franconia, Train 407 was traveling on track one toward Largo, Maryland. As it was passing through Arlington Cemetery at 3:23 p.m., the train derailed and then re-railed itself, according to Homendy.

"Investigators recovered broken sections of brake discs around Arlington Cemetery," she said.

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Once Train 407 arrived in Largo Town Center, it switched over to track two, so it could begin its journey back toward Franconia. However, at 4:13 p.m., the train again derailed and re-railed itself, before continuing on toward Virginia.

"Investigators again recovered broken sections of brake discs at Largo," Homendy said. "It then traveled 15 miles back to Rosslyn, where we know the third known derailment occurred on the way back to Franconia about 150 feet from the Rosslyn Station at 4:51 p.m." The train continued another 1,800 feet, before it stopped in the tunnel.

Among the many issues NTSB investigators are focusing on is the wheel assembly of the 7000 Series trains.

Joe Gordon, railroad accident investigator in NTSB's Office of Railroad, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials, is leading the investigation into the Oct. 12 derailment. His team arrived on the scene on Wednesday morning and began by walking the tracks from the Arlington Cemetery Station to where Train 407 had stopped.

The investigators then continued on toward the Rosslyn Station, where they identified a switch as the point of derailment. In the vicinity of the switch, they found car disc parts that had been dislodged from Train 407 during the derailment.

"As the investigation continued, we noted damage on number one track north of Arlington Cemetery Station," Gordon said. "In this location, we also identified and recovered additional brake discs parts. These parts are different from the previously recovered parts."

Once the investigators confirmed that more than one derailment had occurred, they examined the other areas of track Train 407 had traveled that day to see if they could find evidence of other derailments.

While WMATA initiated a special track inspection, NTSB investigators reviewed data from a system within some of the 7000 Series cars that measures the in-train forces. They also looked at station platform videos to see if other derailments had been caught on video. This led investigators to the derailment outside the Largo Town Center Station.

At this new location, investigators discovered evidence of a ground-running derailment and body movement of train cars. They also found more brake parts.

"On the derailed car, we found that the wheels had moved outboard on the axle, causing the train to derail when traveling through switches," Gordon said.

In their new positions on the axle, the wheels encountered switches differently than how they were designed, causing the cars to derail as they passed through the switches.

Based on NSTB's findings, WMATA began an inspection of all 7000 Series cars, the total number of which make up nearly 60 percent of its fleet.

As a result of the investigation, the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission issued an order on Sunday for WMATA to pull all 7000 series railcars out of service, so that they could be inspected.

"I will also stress that we are concerned about other transit agencies in the United States," Homendy said. "These cars were made by Kawasaki. And so, we may at some point issue an urgent recommendation. I'd say if you were a transit agency operating in the United States and you're listening, make sure that you're checking your cars as well."