At 2:37PM EDT, on Thursday, August 15, 2019, Train 818, an out of service 8 car train failed to stop while approaching a parked 6 car train in the storage tracks outbound of Largo Town Center and experienced a low speed collision between car 7490 of the moving train and car 3223 of the stationary train. No reported injuries and minor damage reported.
Train 818, an out of service eight car train traveling from West Falls Church Rail Yard to Largo Town Center storage tracks consisting of cars (in order traveling towards Largo) 7490-7491+7489-7488+N/A*-N/A*+7505-7504 failed to stop while entering the number two storage track at less than 15 MPH, located underground and outbound of Largo Town Center station, Track 2 was also occupied by an out of service six car train consisting of cars ( starting closest to Largo platform) 3223-3222+3227-3226+3198-3199. The lead car of Train 818, 7490 collided with the facing car 3223 of the standing train approximately 2,050 feet from the outbound end of the Largo platform in a tunnel equipped with three tracks used for temporary storage of trains.
The track departs Largo platform outbound at a 3.425% descending grade for approximately 900 feet as the track transitions into a tunnel at which point the track transitions to a 0.20% descending grade which is where the collision occurred.
The eight cars of Train 818, now 805 received minor to no damage and was transported from Largo at 7:13PM to the Greenbelt Rail Yard arriving at 8:48PM
The six cars of the standing train, now Train 825 received minor damage and departed Largo at 11:29PM enroute to the New Carrollton Rail Yard arriving at 12:50AM on August 16, 2019.
No damage was identified to the tracks, or signals.
WMATA is continuing to investigate to determine the cause of the failure of Train 818 to come to a stop.
* Due to a data dropout, we were unable to confirm these two cars of Train 818
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