Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Tuesday he seriously considered ordering a shutdown of the entire Washington Metro subway system last week and may still do that if local officials don’t follow Transportation Department safety directives.
Local officials have yet to identify the root cause of incidents involving electrical arcing, smoke and fire, and so have no plan for how to fix the problem, he said.
The Federal Transit Administration, which is part of the department, issued a series of emergency safety directives to Metro officials on Saturday that included steps to reduce power throughout the rail system. One recommendation is to cut the number of railcars per train from eight to six. That would make trains far more crowded at peak hours.
“It’s up to them. They have to follow the directive. They have to do it expeditiously,” Foxx said.
Metro officials announced a track maintenance and repair scheduled on Friday that calls for shutting down or drastically reducing service to portions of the system for days or weeks at time over the next nine months.
“Fixing the track is one thing, but some of these (incidents) may involve power plant issues, issues that go deeper into the system,” Foxx said.
source: WTOP.com