Fire on a DC Metro train at L'Enfant station area kills one.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/1-dead-dozens-hurt-on-metro-car-filled-with-smoke/2015/01/12/e832c0f0-9aa8-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html?hpid=z1
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
This was just reported on our local morning news. The good looking idiot who reads the news said it occurred at Washington DCs Elephant Station.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Phoebe Vet This was just reported on our local morning news. The good looking idiot who reads the news said it occurred at Washington DCs Elephant Station.
When you consider the current make-up of Congress, the news reader probably had it right.
NTSB investigating
http://www.progressiverailroading.com/passenger_rail/news/NTSB-investigating-WMATA-smokefilled-train-incident--43221
Dumb question. Why are there no annunciators at each tunnel entrance noting that power is being provided to the third rail? It could be directly wired to the third rail. Of course the annnciator would need some kind of fail safe. Possibly also hardened agaist vandals. If there was more than one isolated section of third rail then each section could be wired to the annunciator.
Additionally an operator could note that there is power available. Its nice to not go into an unpowered tunnel. The annunciator might have prevented entrance of the train if by chance the smoke was caused by a failure of the third rail system'.
Or perhaps the FD could aquire a tester or an emergency kill key like they have for security gates and elevators.
Phoebe Vet Or perhaps the FD could aquire a tester or an emergency kill key like they have for security gates and elevators.
Early supposition is attributing the smoke to arcing in the 3rd rail system.
Arcing, to me, is indicative of live voltage crossing an air space to ground and creating a short circuit. Aren't there circuit breakers and/or fuses to protect against overloaded circuits and I would expect a arcing circuit would also be indicative of a overloaded condition.
Maybe they wanted to build a castle there.
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Preliminary report by DC Fire & Rescue
http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/local/dc-report-on-fatal-metro-incident/1377/?hpid=z1
BroadwayLion Phoebe Vet This was just reported on our local morning news. The good looking idiot who reads the news said it occurred at Washington DCs Elephant Station. Maybe they wanted to build a castle there.
To go with the one over on Pennsylvania Avenue? Or on I Street & 19th?
BaltACDPreliminary report by DC Fire & Rescue http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/local/dc-report-on-fatal-metro-incident/1377/?hpid=z1
Ye gods, there are some frightening details in there. Be sure to read through to the e-mails and the transcriptions of the 911 calls.
Here it is 2015, and the problem with emergency door handles for first responders that the Washington Post said was a problem in 2009 is still, apparently, unresolved. What kinds of problems did WMATA have that the emergency door override is behind a panel secured with four screws?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_%26_Castle_tube_station
?
The emergency doors work fine from the inside and outside. On most cars it's just one of the two sliding doors that function.
There is so much silly and stupid non-fact-checking reporting going on now, weeks afterwards. Lots of "journalists" rushing to report things about nonworking emergency doors (false), encrypted radios that cannot talk to each other (false), nonworking ventilation fans (totally false).
We need to wait for the investigation to complete.
aegrotatio The emergency doors work fine from the inside and outside. On most cars it's just one of the two sliding doors that function. There is so much silly and stupid non-fact-checking reporting going on now, weeks afterwards. Lots of "journalists" rushing to report things about nonworking emergency doors (false), encrypted radios that cannot talk to each other (false), nonworking ventilation fans (totally false). We need to wait for the investigation to complete.
Non fact checking and paraphrasing things they don't understand is the defining characteristic of modern American news reporting. When you combine that with the desire to make things sound as dramatic as possible, you have a typical news cast. I don't know about where you live, but here in Charlotte they report things they read on Twitter and Facebook.
Remember when they used to be able to report severe weather without activating "Storm Center 9"? Burglaries have become home invasions, and we no longer have automobile accidents, we have cars that slam into each other.
I was actually visiting Washington DC that day and riding on the Metro when that happened. Fortunately I was on the Red Line and was not directly affected. I did hear station announements regarding L'Enfant station being closed due to "police activity." I assumed it was some criminal activity and since my train didn't pass the station, I disregarded it. Once I got to my hotel people were messaging me about it on my phone.
Newswire at prsent has no link but here is one that covers most of preliminary NTSB report. In a nut shell -- poor emergency training and not running ventilation fans properly. What kind of house cleaning is it going to take to fix these many safety problems over the past couple years ? BYE BYE Downs ? MBTA did not wait.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/ntsb-metro-fans-pushed-smoke-toward-passengers-on-train/2015/02/11/42db65d8-b215-11e4-886b-c22184f27c35_story.html?hpid=z2
A friend of mine visited DC this week and took a pic of this sign in a Metro car...
My friend also happens to work for Metro in Los Angeles and was appalled by the underlined line, which possibly contributed to the fatality in the Jan 12 tunnel incident.
Is there a mechanism for riders to open DC Metro subway car doors manually? My friend couldn't spot one in the car. In L.A.'s Metro, there is a pull-down lever located above each door to allow for manual opening of the doors. Now, passengers used to abuse this by pulling the lever down to increase dwell times at stations to let people in, and the transit agency has put a protective plastic cover over the opening, but many people seem to know that if worst came to worst, the cover can be broken off and the lever can be pulled down to open doors. And there is always a walkway on at least one side of the tunnel which can allow passengers to exit the cars and head to an emergency exit to the surface or cross-tunnel opening to board a train on the opposite track. Do any such measures exist on the DC Metro?
BaltACD Preliminary report by DC Fire & Rescue http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/local/dc-report-on-fatal-metro-incident/1377/?hpid=z1
Why does a 911 operator have to say "Office of Unified Command DC911 Operator"? Why not just "911 whats your emergency" Some beaurocrat got carried away and made a time wasting script to glorify some title. That IMHO is ridiculous.
Yes, there is manual mechanism to open the door. Only one of the doors opens.
Sad fact to know and tell: I do not remember which year it was, but I was riding during the July 4 holiday. In the weeks preceding July 4, a passenger was leaning on a door that opened while the train was moving. Nobody got hurt, but WMATA discovered a flaw in a very large sample of door systems on more than one series of cars.
Metro is run by a quasi-governmental three-state body who answers to nobody--not even to the FRA. So, because the massively busy July 4 holiday was approaching, WMATA elected to disable *all* emergency door releases. Throughout the July 4 holiday there were *NO* emergency doors operational. Besides this glaringly illegal move, everyone noticed that only one of the doors opened on all the rail cars all holiday long. These are the opposite doors that do not have the emergency door release mechanism.
At the time, virtually nobody in the media reported it, and nobody cared. It was covered up nicely.
Washington Post takes another swipe at Metro.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/blowing-smoke-wont-fix-metro/2015/03/18/14f2cdc8-c827-11e4-a199-6cb5e63819d2_story.html
Now the NTSB is investigating another arcing fire. Wonder if WMATA tried to keep it quiet ?
http://www.progressiverailroading.com/federal_legislation_regulation/news/NTSB-examines-second-electricalarcing-incident-at-WMATA--44080
blue streak 1 Now the NTSB is investigating another arcing fire. Wonder if WMATA tried to keep it quiet ? http://www.progressiverailroading.com/federal_legislation_regulation/news/NTSB-examines-second-electricalarcing-incident-at-WMATA--44080
I recall seeing or hearing something on the local news with the 2nd occurence. It wasn't as bad as the first. I don't think they were trying to hide it, just not making a big deal about it.
Hearings being held and brings up a Washington post editorial.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/stand-by-stand-by/2015/06/24/db8d3474-1ab0-11e5-ab92-c75ae6ab94b5_story.html
I admit that I only ride the Metro when I am in town, but every time I have ridden, the trains were clean and well maintained. Every employee I encountered was friendly and helpful, and the other passengers were polite and well behaved.
I am not sure what the commenters under that article were whining about. I know the response to the emergency could have been much better, but the commenters seem to feel the entire organization is corrupt.
What is needed is a regular schedule of mass casualty drills. That is how most emergency services train for, and evaluate, their emergency response.
4 US Senators == Maryland & Virginia send letter to WMATA BOD about derailment on track that had been declared out of guage 1 month earlier. Although method of correction very suspect bet a congressional investigation with public hearings are not going to be pretty. Downs is going to go on hot seat as well ?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dr-gridlock/wp/2015/08/14/senators-to-metro-enough-is-enough/?hpid=z3
Phoebe Vet I admit that I only ride the Metro when I am in town
I admit that I only ride the Metro when I am in town
Admitting it is the first step, but I feel you should try harder to ride Metro when you're not in town.
Patrick Boylan
Free yacht rides, 27' sailboat, zip code 19114 Delaware River, get great Delair bridge photos from the river. Send me a private message
Should I have found a better way to say I don't ride it very often?
I ride Amtrak to and from DC as well. Does that count?
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