Metro News Release
For immediate release: June 13, 2008
Red Line service disrupted Friday morning due to fires and power outage
Several Metrorail stations lost power and had to operate on emergency lighting, two stations temporarily closed on Friday, June 13, due to a widespread power outage in downtown Washington and the Metro Center Metrorail station experienced two track fires. The separate incidents severely impacted service on the Red Line and caused passengers delays of 60 minutes during the morning.
At 7:24 a.m., a fire was reported near the Metro Center Metrorail station on the Red Line tracks heading to Glenmont. During the incident, Red Line trains shared a single track around the incident and free shuttle bus service was established to supplement the limited rail service.
The DC Fire Department extinguished the fire, which was caused by a smoldering stud bolt. A stud bolt is a small piece of hardware that holds the track in place. By 8:24 a.m. regular service resumed on the Red Line, though Metro customers still faced residual delays.
In addition, five Metrorail stations—Dupont Circle, Shaw-Howard, Farragut North, Farragut West and McPherson Square—lost power from about 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. due to a Pepco power problem in downtown Washington. The power problem did not affect train service, but the stations were significantly darker than usual because they could rely only on emergency lighting. Station escalators, elevators, fare gates and fare vending machines at those stations were not operating.
Because the escalators were not running, the Dupont Circle station was closed from 9:25 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. after Metro officials saw customers struggling up the long escalators. Dupont is one of the system’s deeper stations. The escalators on the Q Street side are 188 feet long.
“We know that many of our riders had a rough commute this morning and we apologize for the inconvenience they faced,” said Metro Deputy General Manager Gerald Francis. “Please know that we kept our customers’ safety in mind with every action that we took this morning. When we noticed that some people were having difficulty climbing the steep escalator stairs at Dupont we closed the station and offered both the free shuttle buses and regular Metrobus service as options.”
A second fire reported at 9:50 a.m. at Metro Center further compounded the morning’s problems. The Metro Center station was closed for a brief time as emergency crews responded. Shortly after 10 a.m. trains were able to share a single track and shuttle buses were available to supplement the rail service.
The fire on the track heading to Shady Grove, was also caused by a smoldering stud bolt. The DC Fire Department extinguished the fire. Red Line trains were sharing a single track between Dupont Circle and Judiciary Square.
Metro track crews worked through the early afternoon to repair the stud bolts on both tracks between the Metro Center and Farragut North stations where the fires occurred.
No injuries were reported due to the small fires. Red Line service was back to normal by 1 p.m.
News release issued at 1:22 pm, June 13, 2008.