Thousands voted, with more than three quarters saying no.
Metrorail tweeted out early Thursday morning that service had been resumed to all lines after the 29-hour shutdown. It was the first time since 1976 that Metro had shut down for something other than a hurricane or blizzard. He says the walk from Metro Center to Roslyn will take him more than an hour.
Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said this about yesterday’s closure of Metro: “It took years for Metrorail to end up in this situation, where maintenance underfunding left us with the problems we see today”. “The whole system shuts down, the whole city shuts down”. “What are folks waiting for?”
Metro’s Safety investigators are reviewing the history of the damaged boots and cables, and all findings will be shared with Federal Transit Administration and National Transportation Safety Board.
“Throughout this intense inspection deployment, our focus has been on effectively mitigating fire risks”, said Wiedefeld.
For years, Metro has failed to spend all of its allotted money for capital improvements, and Wiedefeld has said Metro needs more realistic goals.
A sign at the Rosslyn, Va., Metro station notifies riders that the system is closed for emergency inspection Wednesday, March 16, 2016.
Brian Kirchner, 46, a federal contractor, said he was delayed by two hours getting home to Hagerstown, Maryland, on Monday because of the fire.
Wiedefeld said the alternative of having workers “crawling around” while the system continued to operate would have resulted in weeks of work.
Many riders were eager to get back on the transit system and, while occasionally frustrated that it had closed for an entire day, were pleased that Metro appeared to be serious about addressing riders’ safety. On Wednesday, they didn’t have that option.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management said in a statement that federal agencies will also open, with employees able to perform “telework” from home or put in for unscheduled leave.
The work is scheduled to be complete by the time Thursday’s commute begins at 5 a.m. WMATA spent the day inspecting all 600 “jumper cables” in the Metro system. Some of the connectors were improperly constructed and installed, allowing moisture and other contaminants to build up, it said.
In addition to the electric cables, Foxx said he is concerned about red-light running, the use of emergency brakes, and track integrity.
Commuters in the nation’s capital can return to their regular routines after an unprecedented daylong shutdown of the Washington subway system. But he said no progress has been made on the issue of a dedicated funding source for Metro. “And your solution is to cut?”
“It’s always slow, always crowded”, Bob Jones, 26, of Arlington, Va., told the Associated Press about the troubled transit system he’s not too fond of on a normal day.
In addition to the death a year ago, a crash in June 2009 killed eight riders and a train operator. One user joked that the city should flood the subway tunnels to the level of the platforms and rely on Venetian gondolas rather than trains. A track circuit, part of an automated-train control system, failed to detect the stopped train.
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