DC Metro Crash-Site Circuit Had Failures Since 2007

[question everything]

Source: Bloomberg.com

The track circuit that malfunctioned during last month’s fatal Washington commuter-train crash had faltered intermittently since December 2007, investigators said. The periodic outages followed installation of a replacement part that month in the circuit, which is part of Metro transit’s automated-control system that detects train locations to prevent collisions, the National Transportation Safety Board said today in a statement.

Investigators are still trying to find the cause of the June 22 accident, in which one train plowed into the rear of another that was stopped, leaving nine dead. The system should have slowed the moving train. The NTSB said it’s seeking records to see if any operators reported problems on the circuit. The NTSB said earlier this month that the circuit had periodically lost its ability to detect trains after June 17, the day a part was replaced. The agency cited the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which runs Metro. None of the “anomalies” detected between December and June 17 would have caused the track circuit to fail to detect a train, Metro said today in a statement.


Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a.iir8tu5ZM0#