The 1000-series railcars, which are now 40 years old and at the end of their life, contain an extremely small amount of a non-friable asbestos-containing material within a specific mechanical area of the railcar.
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280 of the oldest Metro cars in use have been found to have asbestos. Moreover, the material is outside of the passenger cabin and is not accessible to riders, thus poses no hazard or concern.
Almost 300 of the Metro’s oldest railcars have been found to have asbestos outside of the cars’ passenger cabins, NBC Washington reported Tuesday.
Though the asbestos fiber is veiled in any of the 1000is thatseries Metro motor vehicles, the scheme, which actually looks for to locate a roofer to exterminate the asbestos fiber and retiring every one of the 1000 and 4000overvallenseries railcars, a few railcars were really came to have opened asbestos fiber.
Metro also has three 1000-series railcars where the asbestos is exposed.
The tender announcement says the disposal of the cars must be done within two years. But those railcars – numbers 1079, 1107 and 1170 – have not been in service since 2009, Ly said.
Companies wishing to remove the asbestos have a deadline of August 21 to submit an offer.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, exposure to asbestos increases the risk of developing lung disease and lung cancer.
A spokesperson for Amalgamated Transit Union local 689, which represents most front line Metro workers, was looking over the documents and not immediately available for comment.
The National Transportation Safety Board had told Metro to nix all the cars with asbestos, which the transport authority says it will do as it phases in the new 7000 series.
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Metro says it is working on it.
