WASHINGTON:Hundreds of thousands of government workers tourists and business travelers could face a chaotic commute in the Washington D.C. area on Wednesday when the second-busiest USA subway system will be shut down for emergency safety checks.
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The estimated 700,000 people who ride the Washington-area Metro system every weekday, including about a third of the region’s federal workforce, were scrambling to get to work and around town while 600 underground cables are inspected.
Preliminary findings of the cause of Monday’s blaze “show commonalities” with another cable fire past year, Wiedefeld said.
The decision was made late Tuesday afternoon surprised riders who depend on the subway to get around the nation’s capital, The Washington Post reported. “This dramatic action highlights the need for long-term safety and reliability improvements throughout the system”.
A long line of morning commuters waits in Silver Spring, Md., to board a bus for downtown Washington. When I say safety is our highest priority, I mean it. That sometimes means making tough, unpopular decisions, and this is one of those times.
But he said the conditions appear “disturbingly similar” to those surrounding a fatal smoke incident in a tunnel near the L’Enfant Plaza stop a year ago. “And it just never occurred to me to think about an alternate route to get there, and then I have to think about that, so it’s making it really hard”.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management said federal agencies in D.C. have option for unscheduled leave or telework.
Many riders shrugged it off, saying it’s what they’ve come to expect from the aging, troubled Metro system. This is why we must take this step immediately.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told a Senate Committee on Wednesday that he has directed the Federal Transit Administration to identify any federal grants to the Washington metro with unspent money and redirect that money to improve safety.
“We don’t have redundancy in the system”, said Rep. Gerald Connolly, a Democrat whose district includes Virginia suburbs of Washington. “What are folks waiting for?” Many of them work for the USA government, which will remain open Wednesday.
Foxx has urged Washington, Maryland and Virginia to establish a federally compliant safety oversight agency to oversee rail operations, according to letters released Tuesday by his office. “The safety of the public and my employees is paramount”.
Some commuters said they welcomed the decision out of concern for their own safety.
Metrorail, which called the shutdown “unprecedented”, has six lines and 91 stations.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci). An aide to Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld, left, holds up a photo of a track damaged by fire as Wiedefeld speaks during a news conference to announce that the DC Metrorail service will be shut down for a full day, at the Wa…
Cab drivers said the traffic was limiting the number of trips they could take.
The aging rail system has been wracked with troubles over the past few years, including frequent outages, delays and a blaze in a power station.
Wiedefeld said the alternative of having workers “crawling around” while the system continued to operate would have resulted in weeks of work.
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Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority was created by an interstate compact in 1967 to finance and operate a transit system in the area of the nation’s capital.
