Word is that the WMATA rail system will not operate tomorrow. This will permit a complete inspection of traction power feeder cables. One of these cables was blamed for a fire in the subway a few months ago. At this time it’s unclear what triggered the inspection at this point. This should making commuting in DC real fun tomorrow.
What triggered the shut down was a fire on the 14th of this month that was similar to the one last year that ended up killing one person. The 14ths fire affected 3 of Metro’s lines.
I’m having trouble understanding (assuming these cables are routinely inspected) why a no-notice inspection had to be made. Could this not have waited long enough to give the public time to plan for the outage or to do the outage on a weekend? Is my inspection assumption wrong, even after last year’s incident?
In today’s enviornment you can never downplay the ‘S’ word; especially in DC. In the past WMATA has played very loose with the ‘S’ word - to their detriment.
So all 3rd rail power will be shut down at sub stations. Question what feeders ?
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Feeders from power sub station to distribution nodes ?
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Connectors at nodes to 3rd rail cable ?
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Bad third rail cable ?
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3rd rail cable connection to 3rd rail ?
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Ground connections to running rails ?
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Any other ?
Will / Can we find out if it was caused by poor materials or poor workmanship ?
- or age?
Balt agree some of it could be age but those electric cables ahould still have a lot of life. ( unless improper cables snuck in ) However if improper inspection of feeders occurred then loose connections will certainly age supply cables faster. Know an electrician whose sole job is during 3rd shift shutdowns to check that all connections are tight. He does say loose connections will raise havoc with computers.
Considering the criticism WMATA has received in past it is good to hear that WMATA is willing to take the extreme step of a maintenance stand down. It may be an overreaction, however better safe the sorry.
If this shutdown inspection results in a few terminations of employees then the whole system will get the message that they best do their jobs ?
Another case of the government being in a total disconnect with the people
Just saw a CBS report on the shutdown. A picture showed the cables from the nodes to the 3rd rail severely open and some of the braids of the cable broken. Just speculation but the one showed may have overheated melting the insulation and then the copper braids ? Not always but that may indicate loose connections at nodes or 3rd rail…
But the most damming of the report said 26 problems were found. Now how could that many be missed except for either sloppy inspections or incompetent management ? Fire some people ! ! ! These problems will probaly need correcting before service through each problem section can be restored. ?
Maybe an NTSB investigation ?
Safety problems start at the top of the Command Structure, not at the bottom. You either develop a safety culture within the organization or everyone from the CEO gets sloppy and views safety as a red headed step child. WMATA has been such a organization.
I obtained much the same news from another source. However, there was no mention of any immediate corrective actions being taken. The system will start running again at 5 tomorrow morning.
So now that they know there are defects, some serious, they are going to resume operations? Have you seen the TV commercial with the individual who is not a security guard, but a security monitor? He monitors the situation and reports, sure enough, there is a bank robbery in progress. It appears riders of this system are in the same situation as that bank’s customers.
(Edited to add):
As the video below makes clear, they did make fixes as defects were found.
In this case the NTSB has made any number of comments about WMATA’ s lack of safety culture, and further said that WMATA lacked outside sources of safety oversight. IE regulatory agencies that could order change. This is an important check against unbounded government. It is also another layer of bureaucracy, that the last 30+ years of Washington politics has abhorred. Just firing people willy nilly has very little effect if their replacements don’t have effective supervision and management. And the memory of what went wrong.(both mechanically and people wise)
Here is a Washington post article with very clear pictures. Mayor complained about shut down oh boo hoo
According to Progressive Railroading this morning…“All but four of the defective locations have been remedied as of last night.”
Many political organizations in the DC area required a wake up call about Metro’s importance to the area as well as it’s need for stable funding. Maybe they got the message, maybe they didn’t. Time will tell.
Having worked several projects for WMATA, in my opinion funding is not the problem, it is how it is managed by a number of people with no rail transit experience, who have never seen a system long enough to see parts failed, and a rigid process that cannot respond to changes in its infrastructure. The process to repair just a simple problem can require several departments to coordinate activities and personnel, with many cases having no clear responsibility or authority. The NTSB’s report found many of the same problems.
These fires have been blamed on bad insulators. METRO announces all porcelian insulators have been replaced by fiberglass insulators.
Why has no other agency have problems with their insulators ? Porcelain is just a ceramic. Remember all atmosphere re entry vehicles have ceramic tiles and nose cones.
Question. did the specifications not have a high enough temp threashold ? . Did insulator manufacturer either not report that specification were too low or did it build faulty insulators. ?
Another article with a picture.