"Nothing more than checking the cables is going on here."
Posted on 03/15/2016 2:38:52 PM PDT by OwenKellogg
WASHINGTON — Metrorail will shut down entirely for more than a day beginning at midnight Wednesday for safety checks, Metro has announced.
Metrorail will reopen at 5 a.m. Thursday. Metro General Management Paul Wiedefeld says that the 29 hours should be enough time to inspect 600 underground jumper cables that provide power to the energized third rail to run the trains.
There is no word yet of the closure’s impact on federal offices or its employees — many of whom rely on Metro to get to work.
The Office of Personnel Management says it will provide an update later today. Virginia Railway Express will operate on a normal schedule Wednesday and Thursday. Montgomery County’s Ride On will run regular weekday service Wednesday but additional buses will be provided where possible. MARC Train will announce any service changes Tuesday evening.
"Nothing more than checking the cables is going on here."
It does seem out of the norm.
close it down for such an inspection in several night operations rather than of over a day, and in the middle of the work week when people require the service
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Unions!
Maybe a twenty four hour, bi-monthly shutdown would be a sweeeeeet proposition!
Cable news does something similar on Saturdays and Sundays.
Will the conductors be given an alternate place to nap?
“:^)
Could be.
What we also don’t know, is if the transit system was the primary transportation vehicle for a mass demonstration planned by the riotous Left.
ditto...
Metoothinks you are correct. I'm wagering a bunch of sensors, sniffers, more cameras. Maybe hang a bunch of bags of bacon grease?
Yes, I agree.
Can you imagine if the shut down the bay bridge for a day and told them all the night before?lol
Who believes the entire system has to shut down for an inspection? One would think it was set up in sections so only one part is down at a time.
Celebrate importing terrorists and open borders!!!
See ya at the bill signing!!!
Office of Personnel Management just announced that Federal employees may take “unscheduled leave” or telework tomorrow instead of coming to work in their office.
A fire in the Metro killed a lady a while back; it seemed to me during the press conference today that Metro were saying they’ve detected something similar to what caused that previous fire. They said they can’t rule out a possible threat to ‘life-safety’, and decided to close for a day to inspect.
-JT
The DC metro closes every night. It’s not a 24 hour transportation system. Something sounds fishy here!
As I understand, they’re closing from midnight tonight until normal starting time on Thursday (I think that’s 5 AM).
-JT
At first I thought that, too. Then I listened to the new director’s press conference. He noted that last year’s inspection report said there were problems, and that some had been fixed, but it was unclear how many needed to be repaired in the near future.
Yesterday, there was another problem similar to the one last year that filled a station with smoke and killed one woman. The METRO engineers couldn’t say how many of these particular cables might fail soon. It was apparent that the new director was so disappointed with the quality of the engineering reports that he decided to shut it all down to get an accurate assessment of the extent of the problem. He said that the inspectors might find one or two problems - or fifty. He then said that some lines might be closed for longer, depending on the problems they find on Wednesday.
I’ll give the new guy a pass on this. He hasn’t been here long enough to realize how futile it is to expect decent quality of work out of the METRO employees.
Wouldn’t Sunday night be a better time?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.