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8/9/2021
Metrorail provides substantially safer and more reliable service, and dramatically fewer train delays three years after the national capital region provided dedicated capital funding to address a backlog of critically needed safety and reliability improvements, according to a new report released by Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).
The report marks the halfway point of the authority's six-year capital program, a coordinated effort to rehabilitate critical infrastructure and systems while establishing an annual preventive track maintenance program.
The program has cut the number of emergency track repairs in half since fiscal-year 2018. WMATA experienced no traction power cable fires — once a leading cause of smoke and fire incidents — in FY2021 due to three years of cable meggering work, authority officials said in a press release.
Incidents resulting from insulator fires also dropped nearly 80 percent during the same period, from 39 in FY2018 to less than five in FY2021. Furthermore, increased water pumping capacity has helped dry up tunnels underground, further reducing train delays, WMATA officials said.
The full report can be read here.