Photo by james1428

Last week’s polar vortex—and the abrupt temperature shift that came after it—certainly caused some weird weather-related problems for District residents, and now the Metro is dealing with problems caused by it.

Those who were riding the Red Line near the Silver Spring station earlier today may have been impacted by some serious delays. For a good chunk of the day, the Red Line was single-tracking between Silver Spring and Forest Glen due to a cracked rail. Metro spokesperson Dan Stessel writes in an email that a long section of rail was cracked as a result of the huge temperature swing in the last week. “[It’s] not at all a surprise, given the 50-plus degree temperature swing over the past few days,” Stessel says. “Necessitated installing a new 39-foot section of rail.” Stessel says that now all work and personnel has cleared, and they have resumed normal two-track operations.

The Orange and Blue lines were also single tracking this afternoon, but have now resumed normal operations. Delays will persist.