10-Car Red Line Train Makes Full Shady Grove-Glenmont Run

WASHINGTON -- Three Metro personnel have been disciplined after a Dec. 2 incident where a Red Line train left the Shady Grove terminal with 10 rail cars -- two cars too many to fit on station platforms.

As the Examiner reports, while such incidents are usually noticed a few stations into a train's service run, the extra-long train went all the way to Glenmont.

There were no passengers in the extra rail cars.

This is not the first time Metro has mistakenly run extra-long trains. In one incident on the Green Line, a Metro employee involved in a 10-car train incident tested positive for drugs and was sent to rehabilitation.

As a safety measure in 2009, Metro mandated that all its train cars -- regardless of length -- pull to the front end of station platforms, eliminating the risk of eight-car trains from stopping short on platforms, which forces rear rail cars to remain in the tunnel while the rest open to the platform.

Metro typically runs six- and eight-car trains for rail service.

Also on HuffPost:

Comments

[LeFlaneur]

10:58 PM on 01/24/2012

... tragically resulting in 86 people making it to where they were going sooner.

[Bigrcube]

03:07 PM on 01/24/2012

I was unaware of 8-car trains running on Metro when I've ridden. Usually 4-car trains, except 6-car during morning & evening rush hour.

[OldSalt1945]

08:22 PM on 01/24/2012

They run 8-car trains on the Red Line during rush hour and special events.