WASHINGTON — The Federal Transit Administration has issued a safety advisory recommending that rail transit operators inspect wheelsets for “out of tolerance wheel gauges” and to submit records of any railcars that have experienced loosened or shifted wheels.
The Washington Post reports the move comes as a result of the derailment and subsequent discovery of axle issues that has sidelined most of the DC Metrorail car fleet. It also follows an earlier recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board calling for inspections of equipment built by Kawasaki, manufacture of the Metrorail cars in question [see “Metrorail car in Arlington derailment left tracks twice …,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 19, 2021].
“While we do not know at this time if this is a widespread issue among rail cars in other transit agencies, the NTSB believes that action must be taken,” an NTSB spokeswoman told the Post. “Safety alerts, like the one issued by the FTA, help to prevent the occurrence of similar accidents in the future.”
Metrorail’s 748 Kawasaki-built 7000-series cars were pulled from service Oct. 17 as a result of an Oct. 12 derailment blamed on axle defects. With less than a quarter of its equipment available because of that and other issues, Metrorail has been operating on a sharply reduced schedule that will continue through at least Nov. 15 [see “DC Metrorail service reductions to continue …,” News Wire, Oct. 29, 2021]. On Sunday, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority announced it would have seven more trainsets in service today (Monday, Nov. 1), increasing its total from 32 to 39, increasing Green Line service to 20-minute intervals instead of the previous 3o to 40 minutes.
The NTSB continues to investigate the Metrorail derailment, along with WMATA, the independent Washington Metrorail Safety Commission, Kawasaki, wheel manufacturer ORX, and the union representing Metro workers.
— Updated at 7:05 am CDT with additional Metrorail trainsets returning to service.
It was my understanding there were two events, the Oct 12 one involving several derailments of the same wheel/axle.
Since the problem seems to have evolved from a derailment problem to an axle problem, I infer the wheel seat on the axle is smaller than it should be to keep the wheel seated at the proper gauge.
I count six agencies investigating the incident(s).
Not even miniature trains from N to 1:8 scale do not have that much chronic derailments. Maybe the NMRA should succeed where the FTA falls short.