Metrorail riders may experience minor impact of storm on Monday morning

Metro officials worked throughout the night to mitigate the impact of Sunday’s thunderstorms to Metrorail service today, Monday, July 26. Yesterday’s storms knocked out power to much of the region, including rail stations and rail yards, however the effect of the storm on Monday’s rail service is expected to be minimal this morning.

Customers may see some more crowded rail cars this morning because the power losses across the region knocked out electricity to rail yards and stations yesterday, which significantly hindered Metro staff from being able to provide maintenance to rail cars and to have rail cars at proper locations to dispatch trains this morning. Scheduled system maintenance was cancelled last night to allow staff to focus efforts on restoring rail cars and the power systems that run the railroad.

Power to the railroad was knocked out at more than a dozen different stations at some point yesterday afternoon and evening, which put stations in the dark, stopped elevators and escalators, prevented the air cooling system from functioning, froze fare gates and turned off fare vending machines. Approximately 18 back-up generators were mobilized to help mitigate the loss of power. Many of those generators are still in use today.

The Shady Grove and Glenmont Rail Yards experienced a loss of power, which impacted the ability of maintenance crews to work yesterday afternoon and evening on preparing rail cars for Monday’s rush hour. With the severe heat in the region since Friday, maintenance crews were unable to fix all of the trains that experienced loss of air conditioning, so fewer trains are expected to be available for morning service.

The weather also saw some flooding that impacted train control equipment along the tracks. For example, the Rockville Metrorail station was temporarily closed last night due to high water on the tracks because electricity was cut to the pumps that would typically keep the tracks dry and passable. Because trains were unable to pass through the station until the water receded, free shuttle buses were used to get riders past the high water.

Also, a downed tree between Shady Grove and Rockville Metrorail stations temporarily halted service between Red Line stations yesterday afternoon.

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Posted by admin on Jul 26 2010. Filed under Northern Virginia News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.