WASHINGTON — Nearly eight months after a Blue Line train derailment forced passengers to evacuate a Metro car, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) announced that several 7000-series cars will return to service starting Thursday.
"Customers can expect service to start tomorrow," said WMATA in a press release. A final review of WMATA's plan to return eight trains back to service was completed Wednesday.
The 7000-series cars will return to service on the Green and Yellow Lines first. Once there is a safe and steady rhythm of inspections of eight full trains daily, that is about 64 rail cars, WMATA claims the additional cars should help increase service on the Blue, Orange and Silver Lines to every 15 minutes in July.
This isn't the first time WMATA has attempted to bring back the 7000-series cars. In December 2021, Metro announced plans to bring back no more than 336 rail cars after months of being out of commission. A month later, officials announced the cars wouldn't return for another three months, a deadline that came and went.
In May, WMATA said the 7000-series cars were on track to return to service in the summer.
"Since May 19, Metro has been focused on training inspectors on the required safety processes which include daily back-to-back wheel measurements using a digital gauge," WMATA said in a press release. "Metro conducted a number of pre-operational test exercises with inspectors to ensure a smooth launch of the new process."
The cars, representing 60% of Metro's total fleet, have been out of service since the derailment of a Blue Line railcar in October 2021, when 200 people had to evacuate a train. The incident led to the D.C. Metrorail Safety Commission ordering Metro to pull nearly 60% of its rail fleet from service.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said the incident could have been "catastrophic."
While investigating the derailment, NTSB found that an axle of the railcar that derailed was "out of compliance with the 7000 Series specifications for the wheel and axle assembly," according to an order issued by the WMSC.