It's already against the law in the District to send text messages or speak on a phone without a hands-free device, but the National Transportation Safety Board is pushing for an across-the-board ban on the use of electronic devices in cars. more ›

NTSB board member Robert Zumwalt, though, has made perhaps the most interesting observation we've heard in some time about Metro: "There's no mention of safety in Metro's charter," he noted. more ›

"This accident is a classic example of an organizational accident." more ›

Photos released earlier this month by the National Transportation Safety Board reveal that Metro's series 1000 rail cars experience significant damage even when placed in the middle of a train. The photos were taken following a crash at the West Falls Church rail yard last November, when two six-car trains collided. The trains were both out-of-service, but three Metro employees, including the train operator, were injured. more ›

We're now into day two of the NTSB's public hearing on the deadly June 22 Red Line crash (you can watch the hearing live online), and while the safety board has yet to release its formal conclusions on the cause of the accident, hundreds of pages of documents released to the public on Tuesday provide details on their findings. more ›

The National Transportation Safety Board will launch an investigation into Sunday's early morning collision between two Metrorail trains at the West Falls Church rail yard, as the Washington Post reports this morning. Three Metro employees were injured, and a minimum of $9 million in damage – a total that is likely to rise – occurred as a result of the crash. As we noted at the end of the day yesterday and the Post elaborates, at least some Metrorail operators have been saying that Sunday's collision could have been caused by a kind of "power surge" that they say sometimes happens when trains are moving slowly in the rail yards. more ›

In a follow up to the Washington Post's big scoop last week regarding a narrowly avoided Metrorail train collision back in March, the paper updates today with word from the National Transportation Safety Board that Metro did in fact inform them of the earlier incident the day after the June 22 Red Line crash. Previously, the NTSB had said that they had not heard about the March incident from Metro.

After a more detailed review, NTSB spokeswoman Bridget Serchak said in an e-mail, the board found that information about the March incident had been "provided verbally by an employee of [Metro] on June 23, 2009 to the NTSB accident investigation team during a progress meeting" about the Red Line crash. No details of the March incident were provided to the NTSB at that time, they said.

Yesterday WTOP's Adam Tuss broke the news that Matthew Matyuf, Metro's superintendent of the Automatic Train Control Division, was back on the job for the first time since the June 22 Red Line crash (the Post followed up this morning). Days after the crash, which an ongoing NTSB investigation has tied to a faulty track circuit within the rail system's automatic train controls, Matyuf was reassigned to a "special project," but as of Monday, he's returned to his normal duties. The move turns out to be tied to this piece of news, also from WTOP, that the NTSB is reportedly close to wrapping up the initial part of its investigation and is expected to make a major announcement on its findings in the next couple of days. Matyuf was moved away from his primary assignments in order to "preserve and protect the integrity" of the crash investigation, the Post reports, but now that the most intensive part of that investigation is wrapping up, he's been allowed to get back to work. more ›

Red Line delays related to the ongoing NTSB investigation will continue through at least Thursday morning's rush hour, Metro announced on Sunday night. The last time WMATA gave us an estimate for how much longer delays affecting the Red Line due to the June 22 crash would go on, they offered July 19 as the best case scenario, but it seems that was overly optimistic. Metro's announcement also makes it plain that they can't be sure that Thursday will be the end of it: "At this point, it is unclear what the NTSB's needs may be after Thursday morning’s rush hour and the impact on Metrorail service. In the meantime, passengers can expect that their trips may take an additional 30 minutes or possibly more to complete, and they should build that added time into their plans." The delays are caused by trains being forced to move one at a time at a reduced speed between Takoma and Fort Totten, while investigators continue their work at the crash site. more ›

The National Transportation Safety Board today issued what it's calling an "urgent safety recommendation" to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, based on the preliminary findings of its investigation into the fatal June 22 Red Line crash. Despite the fact that the investigation has not yet concluded and the NTSB has yet to say officially what they believe was the cause of the accident, they have gone ahead and told WMATA that the transit agency needs to adopt "enhanced safety redundancy" of its train control system. Here's what they said:

A recent accident on the Metrorail's Red Line between the Fort Totten and Takoma stations has shown that WMATA's train control system is susceptible to a single point failure because it did not fail safe and stop a train when detection of a preceding train was lost. The urgent safety recommendation issued today calls for WMATA to evaluate track occupancy data on a real-time basis in order to detect losses in track occupancy and automatically generate alerts to prompt such actions as immediately stopping train movements or implementing appropriate speed restrictions to prevent collisions. more ›

A lot of you have been asking us when the Red Line will start running its normal number of trains and at regular speeds during rush hour, and today Metro offered an answer of sorts: it's going to be another 10 days, at a minimum. WMATA says Red Line riders should expect the same packed trains through July 19, thanks to ongoing reduced rush hour service during the NTSB investigation of the June 22 crash. Between now and July 19, Red Line trains will continue to move one at a time at a reduced speed between Takoma and Fort Totten, which is the source of most of the current Red Line troubles -- fewer trains can move along the line due to the change, and trains can more easily become backed up. The Takoma station will also continue to close at 10 p.m. for at least the next 10 nights as investigators continue their work. There's no guarantee in this Metro announcement that July 19 will be the last of it, either. Merely, word is that July 19 is the best case scenario. more ›

WMATA says we should continue to expect the Takoma Metro station to close early, at 10 p.m., both tonight and Tuesday night. They've been issuing these warnings piece-meal as decisions are made, only giving us the status for the next couple of days at a time. Tuesday could be the last night of early closings due to the ongoing Red Line Crash investigation, or we could see another advisory on Tuesday for the rest of the week. We'll keep you posted. more ›

The National Transportation Safety Board has put up a second advisory today on its web site regarding the most recent findings of its investigation of the June 22 Red Line crash. In it, we learn for the first time that the train control system track circuit where the accident occurred -- the same one that investigators initially found to be not functioning properly after testing it during the first couple of days after the crash -- was replaced by WMATA maintenance crews on June 17, five days before the accident. From the advisory:

After a post- accident review of recorded track circuit data, WMATA reported to the NTSB that the track circuit periodically lost its ability to detect trains after June 17th; the NTSB is reviewing documentation on the performance of that track circuit both before and after the June 17th replacement.

The Red Line may be running its entire route in both directions now, but the ongoing NTSB investigation continues to affect service near the crash site. Metro has announced that the Takoma Metro station will close at 10 p.m. tonight, Tuesday and Wednesday, and possibly more days later this week, to allow investigators access to the area. The station will reopen at 5 a.m. every morning, at its regular time. While the Takoma station is closed between 10 p.m. and midnight, the Red Line will run only from Glenmont to Silver Spring and then from Fort Totten to Shady Grove. Shuttle buses will take riders around the closed station.
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We didn't get this quote down during this morning's press conference, but City Desk provides:

NTSB’s Debbie Hersman this morning confirms that the the striking train was a 1000-series car and that the struck train was a mix of 3000- and 5000-series. She notes that the NTSB has "long been on record" about the crashworthiness of the 1000 series. "We recommended to WMATA to either retrofit those cars or phase them out of service," she says. "Those concerns were not addressed."