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elleng

(130,141 posts)
Tue Mar 15, 2016, 06:22 PM Mar 2016

Washington, D.C., Metro to Close All Day Wednesday.

'The subway system here will shut down all day on Wednesday to allow for wide-scale safety inspections, officials said Tuesday. This will be the first time that the system, the nation’s second busiest, has closed for any reason other than bad weather in its four decades.

Officials ordered inspections of about 600 electrical cables in the system, known as Metro, after an electrical fire in a downtown tunnel on Monday led to long delays on three lines. The episode was similar to one in January 2015 that filled a train with smoke in a tunnel, killing one passenger and sickening several others.

“While the risk to the public is very low, I cannot rule out a potential life-safety issue,” Paul J. Wiedefeld, Metro’s general manager, said at a hastily called news conference on Tuesday afternoon.

Mr. Wiedefeld said he had reached the decision after a conference call earlier in the afternoon with Metro’s board of directors.

He said he expected the subway lines to reopen at 5 a.m. Thursday, but did not rule out further service interruptions if the inspections discovered problems with the cables. He said the cables had last been inspected a year ago.

Although bus service will remain fully active during the shutdown, Mr. Wiedefeld said he recognized “the hardship that this causes to the region and the community.”

The subway system, with 91 stations, has about 700,000 trips a day. The federal and local governments said they were assessing the situation and would soon have guidance for their employees.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/16/us/washington-dc-metro-to-close-all-day-wednesday.html?


I heard on the radio that for Federal employees, unscheduled leave is approved.

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FSogol

(45,357 posts)
3. The fire happened on Monday. They feel everything should be checked asap.
Tue Mar 15, 2016, 06:39 PM
Mar 2016

Why wait 3 extra days?

The question that should be asked is why aren't we spending more on aging infrastructure?

Salviati

(6,002 posts)
6. It's the cult of efficiency
Tue Mar 15, 2016, 06:51 PM
Mar 2016

Maximizing efficiency at the expense of everything else means that our systems become very brittle.

madinmaryland

(64,920 posts)
5. Safety. If something happened between now and Saturday, there would
Tue Mar 15, 2016, 06:41 PM
Mar 2016

be a shit storm. Safety should come first, but of course they should have done it sooner.

 

SheilaT

(23,156 posts)
2. Nice for the federal employees,
Tue Mar 15, 2016, 06:39 PM
Mar 2016

but not everyone works for the federal government there. Lots of trade associations, lobbying groups, attorneys, doctors, retail stores. Maybe the entire city can shut down except for emergency personnel?

 

SheilaT

(23,156 posts)
11. Federal employees get good enough
Tue Mar 15, 2016, 07:05 PM
Mar 2016

leave that I'm not very exercised over that requirement. I'm saving my sympathy for the thousands who won't even have the option of using a leave day and will have to somehow get in to work despite no Metro.

 

KamaAina

(78,249 posts)
8. They can't do this overnight?
Tue Mar 15, 2016, 06:55 PM
Mar 2016

BART keeps telling us that we can't have all-night service because they need to do maintenance overnight. Wouldn't the same logic apply here?

 

SheilaT

(23,156 posts)
12. I do love good public transportation.
Tue Mar 15, 2016, 07:10 PM
Mar 2016

I lived in Alexandria, then Arlington from 1969 through 1981. I didn't even own a car my first seven years, only bought when when I decided to start taking classes at NVCC. I took the bus when I worked at the airport, then took Metro when I was working in the Forrestal building.

When I was relocating because of a divorce, I gave serious thought to moving back there, in no small part because of the good public transportation. Now I'm in Santa Fe, which has a semi-adequate bus service. If I ever relocate, one of the crucial things will be public transportation.

madinmaryland

(64,920 posts)
18. Apples to Oranges, KM. Overnight maintanence has a certain time frame to fix
Tue Mar 15, 2016, 07:50 PM
Mar 2016

a certain problem. They have the exact personnel to complete the job. Doing what they are planning on doing is going to take a hell of a lot longer and requires ALL lines to be shut down.

Remember, the Repubicans hate public transportation (though they do like pubic transportation), and they are hell bent on killing it, making it difficult to maintain it.

Glimmer of Hope

(5,823 posts)
15. Everyone should just stay home. It will be a mess just like when they light the Christmas
Tue Mar 15, 2016, 07:22 PM
Mar 2016

tree during rush hour x1000.

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