Failures aplenty with Metro car

The type of Metro car that derailed Sunday and injured 20 persons has a history of problems, including door malfunctions, brake problems and faulty propulsion systems.

“All of that is now being very seriously reviewed, as it has before,” said Jim Graham, the Ward 1 representative on the D.C. Council and a member of the Metro Board of Directors since 1999. “Once again, we’re looking at this series to see what the problem might be.”

The derailment occurred on the Green Line at about 3:45 p.m., when the fifth car of a six-car train traveling northbound crossed a rail switch and left the tracks before entering the Mount Vernon Square/7th Street-Convention Center station.

About 120 passengers were on the train. One passenger had a head injury, but all had been released from hospitals by last night.

The cars involved were among 192 new cars provided under a $378 million contract by AAI/CAF — an arrangement between the AAI Corp. in Hunt Valley, Md., and Construcciones Y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles of Madrid.

Metro began receiving the cars — known as the 5000 series — in 2001.

“I’m scared of them,” said one Metro employee, adding the cars brake slower than other models. “None of the operators like them.”

In January 2002, a faulty circuit caused a woman to be trapped in the doors of a car and dragged along a platform at the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro station, officials said.

That month alone, there were 41 incidents in which 30 of 32 cars in the series failed and had to be taken out of service.

Also in 2002, the cars’ dynamic braking systems, which are part of the electric motors that help slow the train, were failing mainly because of overheated computer circuits, officials said. They also reported problems with the trains’ propulsion systems and with misaligned doors.

From April 2003 to October 2004, four derailments occurred involving the 5000 series cars. Three of them occurred in or near Metro rail yards, and no passengers were on board during the incidents.

Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said the previous derailments were partially the result of the trains operating on unlubricated or dry tracks while negotiating tight curves.

She said switches and rails on the system’s mainline tracks are lubricated.

“They were moving the trains,” Miss Farbstein said of the previous derailments. “And when trains are in the rail yard, they’re on a different track than a mainline track.”

Metro officials received the last of the cars from CAF in 2004, Miss Farbstein said. The agency has contracted with a Barcelona-based company for a newer series of cars.

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