Metro To Inspect Rail Cars After Shutdown
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Metro will conduct precautionary inspections of its 5,000-series rail cars in response to an incident that caused the blue and orange lines to be shut down between busy downtown stations.
Metro General Manager Richard Sarles said Tuesday that he's ordered precautionary tests on all of the 190 cars from that series. The 5,000-series cars are among the newer cars in Metro's fleet, having been delivered between 1998 and 2003.
Metro spokesman Dan Stessel says the inspections will not lead to any service delays.
Part of the brake assembly on a rail car fell off Tuesday morning and struck the electrified third rail, causing sparks and smoke. The transit agency says 300 riders were escorted off the trains. No one was injured, and Stessel says the incident appears to be isolated.
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