WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (AFP) — Washington, D.C.’s subway system will reopen on Thursday (March 17) after a day-long shutdown for emergency safety checks that forced commuters to battle heavy traffic aboard crowded buses, on bicycles and even skateboards.
Washington’s Metrorail, the second-busiest U.S. subway system, will reopen at 5 a.m. EDT after crews wrap up checks of power cables, Paul Wiedefeld, general manager of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, said on Wednesday (March 16).
He told a news conference that some of the 91 stations on the 119-mile (190-km) system may remain closed if repairs were not finished by the scheduled reopening time.
“Metro teams have identified 26 areas where damaged jumper cables and connector boots exist. The inspection is near completion, but I would anticipate this number to grow even slightly higher, slightly,” Wiedefeld said at a news conference. He added that 18 of the 26 defective cables that had been found had been repaired.
The shutdown of Metrorail at midnight on Tuesday prompted many of the estimated 700,000 people who ride the system on a typical weekday to complain that they had little time to prepare before it was announced on Tuesday afternoon. The shuttering was intended to give safety crews time to inspect 600 underground cables that could pose a fire risk.
“We are sorry this had to happen that it has come to this we are aware of the inconvenience that was caused by closing down the system for the 29 hours but we still believe today that we made the correct decision because of safety,” said Jack Evans, the Chairman of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
The shutdown also raised concerns about the safety of a system serving the U.S. capital and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs that has long been plagued by smoky tunnels, breakdowns and deadly accidents. It was the first time the system had been closed for something other than bad weather since it started operating in the 1970s.
The closure was no windfall for the city’s cab drivers, many of whom said the heavy traffic was hurting their business.
U.S. government offices, Congress and most schools remained open, although the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the federal workforce, gave employees the option of taking unscheduled leave or working from home.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the shutdown was necessary for a system where 18 people have been killed in rail accidents in the past 34 years.