Signal issue at Rosslyn disrupts Orange, Silver, Blue Lines
A signal issue at the Rosslyn Metro station caused major delays, offloads, and train reroutes on Thursday, August 1 on the Orange, Silver, and Blue Line trains. Delays began subsiding around 9:45 am after the end of morning rush.
Delays westbound began around 7:40 am and quickly grew. Similar delays eastbound began occurring around 8:30 am after WMATA Automatic Train Control (ATC) personnel arrived on scene.
Automatic electronic equipment ("automatics") at the Rosslyn junction where tracks diverge to head to either Arlington Cemetery or Court House typically detects the destination of the next train entering the station. Once detected, the equipment automatically moves the switch into the correct position so that the train ends up at the right location.
By 9:10 am some westbound trains arriving at Rosslyn had accumulated over 40 minutes of delay.
Silver Line service was briefly cut back to Ballston but then disregarded by the Rail Operations Control Center (ROCC); instead only select Silver Line trains were offloading at Ballston with most continuing to Largo.
Various trains were being instructed by the ROCC to offload and turn back to reduce how many trains were running through Rosslyn.
The cause of the initial signal issue is not yet known.
Metro officially tweeted at 11:42 am that delays had subsided and service had resumed to normal, about two after delays had begun to decrease on the three lines.
Delays westbound began around 7:40 am and quickly grew. Similar delays eastbound began occurring around 8:30 am after WMATA Automatic Train Control (ATC) personnel arrived on scene.
Automatic electronic equipment ("automatics") at the Rosslyn junction where tracks diverge to head to either Arlington Cemetery or Court House typically detects the destination of the next train entering the station. Once detected, the equipment automatically moves the switch into the correct position so that the train ends up at the right location.
In the absence of this automatic destination routing, WMATA personnel on the tracks have to manually "crank" and "clamp" the switches into the correct position for trains to continue. This manual process is slower than the automatic one and requires personnel to be on the tracks so trains can't be moving while the operation is performed.Current status on the OR/SV/BL lines.— Metro Reasons (@MetroReasons) August 1, 2019
Some trains are offloading and reversing at various points to reduce the number of trains through Rosslyn.#wmata pic.twitter.com/Z3ARlf9IXz
By 9:10 am some westbound trains arriving at Rosslyn had accumulated over 40 minutes of delay.
Metro rerouted Blue Line trains to run up to Mount Vernon Square from National instead of heading to Largo; bus shuttle service was set up to run to Arlington Cemetery.Cumulative train delays on the Orange, Silver, and Blue Lines during this morning's rush hour on Metrorail were ~311% worse than usual; average headway adherence was 60%, and average schedule adherence was 53%. Worst performance since June 28th. #wmata pic.twitter.com/dc87MvNel7— MetroHero (@dcmetrohero) August 1, 2019
Silver Line service was briefly cut back to Ballston but then disregarded by the Rail Operations Control Center (ROCC); instead only select Silver Line trains were offloading at Ballston with most continuing to Largo.
My @wmata commute this morning.— Andy Medici (@AndyMedici) August 1, 2019
1. Took shuttle to Pentagon.
2. Signal problems at pentagon means blue line to Rosslyn not working.
3. Told to take yellow to lenfant so I do.
4. Train on track means we sit in tunnel.
5. Then at Lendant the station is packed Lenfant packed.
Various trains were being instructed by the ROCC to offload and turn back to reduce how many trains were running through Rosslyn.
The cause of the initial signal issue is not yet known.
Metro officially tweeted at 11:42 am that delays had subsided and service had resumed to normal, about two after delays had begun to decrease on the three lines.
