Metro Blames Derailment on 'Deteriorated' Track Conditions

ARLINGTON, VA -- Metro officials are blaming a track defect for the Friday derailment of a Silver Line train that injured one person and caused the East Falls Church station to be shut down for days.

"Metro’s safety department has made a preliminary assessment that the causal factor in the derailment is a track condition, specifically a condition where the two rails on which trains run were too wide as a result of deteriorated rail ties," a Metro statement reads. "Other possible contributing causal factors, including car equipment, weather, temperature and other factors remain under review. At this time there is no evidence of train operator error."

Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld has ordered a special supervisory inspection of all tracks in the wake of the incident.

"While Metro and the outside experts continue their review, we are requiring supervisors to conduct a specialized track inspection to look for any other similar conditions that must be immediately addressed," he said in the statement.

Metro has taken other actions, including pre-inspecting interlockings used on the Red Line prior to the implementation of SafeTrack Surge 6, requiring pre-inspection of all interlockings required to facilitate SafeTrack closures and conducting quality assurance audits of all these inspections, according to the statement.

Metro said during the period the station was out of service, it had replaced more than 450 rail ties which had "not yet been addressed under the SafeTrack program."

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