Metro News Release

For immediate release: August 27, 2007

Power problems, fires cause a second day of major delays on Metrorail

Power problems and fires have caused major delays on the Blue, Yellow and Green Metrorail Lines tonight. Customers who entered a station and wanted to leave to avoid the delays could exit at no charge on all lines after 10 p.m.

Metro passengers have been experiencing delays since after 7 p.m. on the Blue and Yellow lines when several trains lost power in the area of Pentagon City and Braddock Road. The trains were pushed to stations where passengers got off them. A track fire was also reported at the Pentagon City station.

There is still no rail service between Arlington Cemetery and Braddock Road stations as power technicians and other Metro personnel work on fixing the problems. Buses are shuttling passengers between the stations, and also between L'Enfant Plaza and Huntington stations on the Yellow Line to ease crowding.

At around 7:20 p.m. a track fire shut down the U Street-Cardoza station on the Green line. The Columbia Heights station also closed due to logistics. The station reopened at around 8:40 p.m. Shuttle buses carried passengers between Georgia Avenue-Petworth and Shaw-Howard University stations. The fire was caused by an arcing piece of track bed equipment.

News release issued at 12:00 am, August 27, 2007.