Metro Holds Big Emergency Drill in Silver Line Tunnel

Metro conducted a full-scale emergency exercise at the Greensboro Station on the Silver Line Sunday morning, testing whether emergency crews could react quickly to a smoke and fire incident on the rail system.

Metro Transit Police and Fairfax County collaborated on the exercise, which involved personnel from the Metro Transit Police, Fairfax County Fire, Fairfax County Police, Fairfax County Office of Emergency Management, Fairfax County Department of Transportation, Virginia Department of Transportation and the Virginia State Police, according to a Metro statement.

The drill took place from 8:30 a.m. until 11 a.m. in the tunnel between Greensboro and Tysons Corner stations. The purpose of the drill was to "test response to smoke and fire incident inside the tunnel between Greensboro and Tysons Corner stations," Metro said.

Metro has been struggling with a series of smoke and fire incidents throughout the rail system, and has implemented a year-long "SafeTrack" plan to make fixes system-wide. One of the smoke and fire incidents resulted in the death of a woman at L'Enfant Plaza last year.

Image via Wikimedia