Photo by Rolenz.

As WMATA faces a $50 million lawsuit from the family of the woman who died in January 12’s smoke incident at the L’Enfant Plaza—plus dozens of other lawsuits from passengers stuck on the smoke-filled trains—a number of questions remain.

Hopefully, the National Transportation Safety Board will answer those questions, like what caused an “electrical arcing event” on the third rail. But we’ll have to wait for June, as that’s when the NTSB will hold their two-day hearing about the January incident.

The NTSB announced the June 23-24 hearing today, which they say will cover the “conditions leading to the arcing,”emergency response efforts,” “WMATA’s efforts to improve its overall safety and safety culture (since the Fort Totten accident in June 2009),” “the state of WMATA’s infrastructure,” “the Federal Transit Administration’s rulemaking on public transportation safety,” and “the Tri-State Oversight Committee’s oversight responsibilities.”

Until then, the NTSB says that “further investigative updates and investigative hearing information will be issued as events warrant.”