Metro News Release
For immediate release: April 12, 2007
Metro Identifies Cause of Fire Aboard a Green Line Train
An electrical voltage surge and a software malfunction caused smoke and a small fire aboard a rail car last Sunday, April 8. There were no injuries.
Officials from Metro and Alstom Transportation, Inc., the manufacturer of railcar number 6017, spent the last several days investigating the cause of the Sunday incident on the Green Line train at the Waterfront-SEU Metrorail station.
“What happened this past Sunday was an extremely rare occurrence,” said Gerald C. Francis, Metro’s Deputy General Manager. “Over the last several days, we have worked with Alstom to identify the root cause of Sunday’s fire. As a result, we have been working diligently to correct the problem, and we want to assure our Metrorail customers that the series 6000 rail car fleet is safe and we will continue to operate these cars.”
Investigators determined a dual set of circumstances occurred simultaneously. An electrical component underneath the railcar had failed, causing voltage in the car to rise. At the same time, a new software package designed to monitor the flow of electricity through the car also failed, resulting in excessive overheating of the rail car’s brake resistor. These actions consequently led to smoke and the small fire in the railcar’s undercarriage.
Metro and Alstom identified 190 (series 6000 and rehabilitated series 2000/3000) rail cars that have the new software package and as of today, Metro has already retrofitted 152 rail cars with an older software package. Metro expects to retrofit the remaining 38 rail cars with the older software by Saturday morning.
“Our cars are safe and our customers should not be concerned about their safety,” Metro General Manager John Catoe. “We have identified and fixed the problem.”
Alstom will correct the new software package that was originally installed in the 190 rail cars.
The Waterfront-SEU Metrorail station was closed for about 2 ½ hours Sunday, April 8, after a small fire inside rail car number 6017 caused smoke to fill the station. There were no injuries and the station reopened after the smoke was cleared.
A Metro employee reported a loud noise aboard a six-car Green Line train (train 502) as it left L’Enfant Plaza headed toward Waterfront-SEU Metrorail station at about 10:10 a.m. The train operator told passengers to exit the train when it pulled into the Waterfront station so that he could take the train out of service. As the train pulled into the station, there was another loud noise followed by smoke coming from the last car of the train.
The station manager evacuated the station because of the smoke and everyone was able to exit safely. The station closed at 10:10 a.m. and reopened at 12:36 p.m.
The District of Columbia Fire Department responded to the scene. The fire did not penetrate the floor of the railcar, although there was smoke in the car and station.
The railcar is one of Metro’s newest cars in the fleet of about 964 cars.
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News release issued at 12:00 am, April 12, 2007.