Rail Transit OPS Group, Event ID 17-099
On June 24, 2017 at about 7:15PM Eastern Daylight Time, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) outbound Blue Line Train 405 was incorrectly routed to the Orange/Silver Line at the Rosslyn station. After the train operator contacted the Rail Operations Control Center (ROCC) of the incident, ROCC instructed the operator to offload the train at the Court House station.
Once Train 405 was offloaded at Court House at ~7:23PM, it was taken to Clarendon, where it was crossed over to the inbound track and reversed back to pick up passengers at Court House station. Train 405 then continued on to Foggy Bottom, where it was once again crossed over to the outbound track and reversed at ~7:33PM. It then resumed service to Pentagon City, which was serving as an interim terminal station at the time (station maintenance at Crystal City required a shutdown from Pentagon City to National Airport).
WMATA reported this incident to the public via Twitter as a “train malfunction”:
https://twitter.com/metrorailinfo/status/878758198794043392
Contributing Factor: Train Operator Lost Situational Awareness
Recommendations:
- 17-099.1 Installation of interlocking flood lights to increase lighting on switch points at Rosslyn (C05, switch 3)
- 17-099.2 Relocation of signal C05/06A to a point behind C05/06 within train operators’ field of view while their trains are berthed on the Track 2 (outbound) platform at the 8 car marker
- 17-099.3 Installation of a new digital PIDS within train operators’ field of view while their trains is berthed on the Track 2 (outbound) platform at the 8 car marker
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