John Matthews
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Metrorail opened on time with full service Friday after repair crews worked through the night to replace all of the third rail insulator components at the Federal Center SW station.
A small fire at around 4:30 pm prompted Metro to close and evacuate the station, and General Manager Paul Wiedefeld ordered the staion shut for the rest of the day after he saw video of an earlier explosion at the station that had taken place Thursday morning. No one was hurt in either incident.
The Capitol South station was closed as well, in order to give trains space to turn around and avoid Federal Center SW.
Service on the Blue, Orange and Silver lines was suspended between the L’Enfant Plaza and Eastern Market stations, creating a nightmare for commuters trying to get home, but the cure may be as bad as the illness on Metrorail.
On Friday, Wiedefeld will lay out his plans for a comprehensive overhaul of the Metrorail system – a plan designed to repair decades of neglect, but one which will crreate hardships for riders for months to come, with entire stretches of lines to be shutdown for weeks at a time so crews can properly rebuild the system one piece at a time.
” It’s an aggressive plan to get three years worth of track work done sooner than that – in months,” said Metro Board Chairman Jack Evans in an interview with WMAL. “Shutdowns of track segments between stations is going to happen – at least for weeks,” he added.
Copyright 2016 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: WMATA)
