Two More Problems on Metro Monday Evening. Metro Questioning Whether Power Issues are Accidental.
One day after eight separate reports of smoke or fire kept D.C. and Northern Virginia fire departments busy, there have been two more incidents.
Around 7:30 Monday evening, D.C. Fire & EMS handled a report of smoke in a tunnel at the U Street/Cardozo station.
There was a bigger issue in Northern Virginia a short time later. Major power problems on the Blue/Yellow line, forced Metro to set up a bus bridge between Crystal City and Braddock Road.
The Washington Post reports Metro officials are now wondering if there is something more to this than the power surge they suspected after a series of incidents on Sunday. Here is an excerpt from the Post article by Lena H. Sun and Martin Weil:
Smoke poured into Metro subway tunnels again last night, a day after an unprecedented and unexplained series of such incidents, and baffled officials began to consider the possibility that the events were more than mere accidents.
“This is not normal,” Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. said. “This is highly, highly irregular.”
Asked whether he suspected terrorism, Catoe said no. But he added: “Could it be something else? Everything now is suspicious.”
Asked whether he suspected sabotage, he said, “I don’t know the answer to that question.”
A spokesman for the D.C. fire department said the department was “very concerned” about the large number of incidents in a brief period and would try to assist Metro in determining whether they were more than accidental.
Here is what the AP is reporting:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Smoke and small fires crippled the Metro train system in a large part of northern Virginia on Monday evening — the second night of disruptions that officials attributed to electrical problems.
A fire broke out on the tracks at the Pentagon City station in Arlington, Va., about 7:30 p.m., officials said. Trains were halted and four stations were closed in Arlington and Alexandria,
including Reagan National Airport’s busy station — where smoke halted service Sunday.
Something was wrong with the transit system’s power supply, but officials hadn’t determined the cause, Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said. No injuries were reported.
“We are doing everything we can to try to identify what the problem is,” Farbstein said. “It’s extremely troubling just for one day, let alone two.”
A fire also was reported Monday evening at the U Street-Cardozo station in Washington. That station was closed for about an hour, along with the Columbia Heights station.
Earlier Monday, transit officials said they were investigating whether a sudden electrical surge in northern Virginia might have caused five similar incidents that shut down several rail stations on Sunday evening.
Deputy General Manager Gerald Francis said the outbreak was unprecedented in Metro’s 31-year history, and he apologized to riders for the inconvenience.
“We have pulled together a team representing several operational departments to determine the cause of the incidents,” Francis said in a statement. “We know our riders were frustrated.”
As part of its investigation, Metro was working with Dominion Power. A spokeswoman for Dominion said workers from the utility company were called to the incident at Reagan National Airport on Sunday but were released when Metro officials described the situation as an “internal communications room problem.”
