Washington Metrorail Safety Commission

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Watch the latest edition of The Rail Safety Report, to learn more about recent inspections, oversight activities and safety initiatives across the Metrorail system. #RailSafey #SafetyOversight

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That concludes today’s meeting. Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 9, 2026.

The WMSC continues its oversight of WMATA's 8000-series railcar safety certification program.

This safety-critical use was a leading driver of the WMSC's oversight interest in this project when it was selected for in-depth review in 2022. Metrorail has indicated it will continue to rely on the improved manual back-to-back process.

In the past week, WMATA has indicated that it no longer intends to use AWIS for back-to-back wheel measurements.

Metrorail planned to use the Automated Wayside Inspection System as a means of real-time automated back-to-back measurements of the 7000 series rail cars through measurement stations that were to be installed at strategic locations throughout the Metrorail rail right of way.

The WMSC selected AWIS for in-depth review in August 2022 based on a number of safety considerations surrounding the project.

Station overruns continue to be elevated at certain stations, and the WMSC remains vigilant in its oversight. WMATA has undertaken a range of operational, training, and infrastructure mitigation measures to address overruns, and these efforts are ongoing.

The WMSC Systems Engineering work supports the WMSC's oversight work across train control, communication systems and signals state of repair and practice, and safety certification oversight.

Next up: Safety Certification Oversight Update

This is a significant improvement from the issues noted in the 2025 Audit which led to the creation of this CAP. The WMSC commends Metrorail on this significant improvement on this important safety issue.

6 of 27 sampled events evidenced delays of 10-19 minutes, and another 12 events evidenced delays of 4 to 9 minutes before emergency response requests were made to jurisdictional first responders. Delays such as these risk another event like the 2015 L’Enfant Plaza Station event.

According to the report, the affected railcars began to fill with smoke within approximately 5 minutes. In our 2025 Audit of Emergency Management, a sampling of fire and smoke safety events found similar instances of delays in calls to jurisdictional emergency services.