Cracked Rail Repaired On Metro Red Line | News

WASHINGTON (WUSA) -- Tens of thousands of people are hoping their evening commute goes better than their morning ride in. A cracked rail on the Red Line forced all the trains on to a single track from the beginning to the end of the early rush.

This has been happening all to frequently for a lot of riders. And it could be years before it gets better.

Metro workers used a shopping cart to haul a big chunk of cracked rail to their truck. It's a disturbing reminder that much of the metal that carries millions of riders on the system is now more than one-third of a century old.

Packed trains left scores of riders behind in the morning, as Metro struggled to carry everyone in and out of the city on a single track. "One word: horrific," said one rider.

Crews waited at the edge of the platform to get in and start repairs. Metro had to bring in a crane to replace of cracked 40 foot section of rail. But by 12:30, it was fixed and trains were back on both inbound and outbound tracks.

One rider said about 6:40 in the morning, he heard a loud jolt from underneath his train headed in bound from Friendship Heights to Tenleytown. The train pulled into the station and inspectors gave it the all clear. Then they went back and found a 40 foot crack in the rail.

"It's a miserable commute. A miserable commute," said another rider.

Metro's in the middle of a five year, five Billion with a B dollar project to repair and replace tracks and stations and escalators in hopes of preventing this kind of mess. It's actually planning track work on the Red Line this weekend.

For lots of riders, it cannot happen soon enough. "I'm from France, and in France, usually they run every two minutes every day and on Saturday and Sunday," said passenger Aline Frimon. And there's never much of an issue.... The capital of the biggest and strongest country in the world, and when I see that, I really don't understand."

Metro says these kinds of cracks are often caused by cold weather and sudden changes in temperature. But they have no idea what caused this latest fiasco, because it wasn't that cold.

Written and Reported by Bruce Leshan
9News Now & wusa9.com