Passengers on a train by Rich Renomeron licensed under Creative Commons.

Two oversight and safety agencies are investigating the derailment of a Blue Line train that left almost 200 passengers stranded aboard the train for an hour Tuesday afternoon. Meanwhile, that same day, a signal problem cropped up outside Brentwood Yard on the Red Line, and Green/Yellow line trains temporarily stopped serving Columbia Heights and Georgia Ave due to a police investigation. All three incidents delayed rush-hour service across all six of the system’s lines.

The Blue Line train derailed around 5 pm as it left Rosslyn towards Franconia. Initial reports and information from Metro personnel and radio transmissions noted that one of the train’s eight cars partially derailed, with one of its two sets of wheels partially off the tracks.

Blue Line service was suspended between Foggy Bottom and Pentagon through the end of Tuesday.

Metro announced late Tuesday night that Blue Line train service on Wednesday would remain suspended between Rosslyn and Pentagon for the system’s 5 am opening due to the ongoing derailment investigation. Blue Line trains are set to run only between Mt. Vernon Square over the Yellow Line bridge to Franconia-Springfield, with Orange and Silver line trains single-tracking between Foggy Bottom and Clarendon. The agency says bus shuttles will be provided between Rosslyn, Arlington Cemetery, and Pentagon stations.

187 passengers onboard the train were stuck for over an hour until they were evacuated to Arlington Cemetery. Arlington County Fire Department personnel began responding around 6:20 pm. All passengers were assisted back to Arlington Cemetery by about 7:30 pm.

While no injuries were reported, one person was transported to an area hospital and is in stable condition according to Arlington Fire and EMS.

The Washington Metrorail Safety Commission (WMSC) said it was aware of the derailment, and sent an investigator to the derailment scene. The WMSC is an independent oversight body responsible for overseeing and enforcing Metrorail safety practices.

The National Transportation Safety Board also noted Tuesday evening that they would send two of their railroad accident investigators to work with WMATA and the WMSC to investigate the accident.

The cause of the derailment was unknown Tuesday. According to Metrorail radio transmissions, a passenger reported to the train operator that the car they were in was “filling up with smoke.” The train operator around the same time reported to the Rail Operations Control Center that their train was reporting a stuck brake, only reporting the train may have derailed when they went back to investigate.

Metro has averaged about four derailments per year for the last three years - the majority of which were roadway maintenance machines without passengers onboard, according to system data.

The last train with passengers onboard to derail was in July, 2020, outside the Silver Spring station. Metro’s safety department concluded the derailment was a result of “a lack of effective, redundant protections for train movement” when they shouldn’t be moving.

Three years of Metrorail derailment data. Image from WMATA's Q4/FY2021 Performance report.

After being closed at about 5:30 pm, the Georgia Ave and Columbia Heights stations reopened at about 8 pm, according to @Metrorailinfo tweets. An initial report stated the police investigation at the station was in response to a person that ended up on the tracks after an altercation.

Tagged: transit

Stephen Repetski is a Virginia native and has lived in the Fairfax area for over 20 years. He has a BS in Applied Networking and Systems Administration from Rochester Institute of Technology and works in Information Technology. Learning about, discussing, and analyzing transit (especially planes and trains) is a hobby he enjoys.