So Far, Metro Circuits Pass Inspection

Metro is making progress inspecting trackside circuits suspected in last week's deadly train collision.

Last week, workers began checking all 3,000 circuits in the transit agency's signaling system. With 65 percent of the circuits checked so far, Metro says it has found no anomalies or malfunctions.

However, that does not include the circuit at the crash site that NTSB investigators say failed to detect a test train stopped in the same spot as the train that was struck in last week's deadly Metro train accident. Nine people died, including the train operator.

Metro's General Manager John Catoe, at a press conference, says the agency will not rest until it knows what caused the accident and fixes it. A final report from the NTSB is not expected for months or even a year, but Metro acknowledges something in its automatic train control system failed.

"It is safe to say that the automatic control system, is designed to, which is designed to prevent a collision yet that system collapsed and the collision did happen," said Catoe.

Metro is bringing in independent experts to examine its signaling system procedures and operations to determine what if anything should be changed. The agency is also reorganizing its operations department to bring together rail operations and signaling and track operations which had been separate.

After last week's crash, Metro announced it would reconfigure its 1000-series rail cars because of concerns about crashworthiness. It's the oldest model rail car in the fleet, making up about 25 percent of the cars in the system. The striking train in the crash, a 1000-series rail car, collapsed like a telescope crushing most of the car.

As of now, Metro says 80 percent of those older rail cars have been moved to the middle of the train, with newer cars on the ends that can better withstand a crash.

"As a result of this tragedy, we have racked our brains for ways to make the rail cars less vulnerable," Catoe said.

The crash site is still under investigation, which means Red Line trains are operating in manual mode at a top speed of 35 miles per hour, slowing the commute down.

If the NTSB has not released the site by the Fourth of July, when hundreds of thousands of Metro riders are expected to use Metro to head downtown, riders could continue to experience delays.