Metro replacing wheels on 7000 series railcars to improve safety, service

WASHINGTON (7News) — Metro said riders should slowly but surely start seeing a higher percentage of newer trains and fewer trains from the 1980s.

The reason involves a process the transit agency hopes will finally return things safely to normal after a derailment exposed wheel safety issues more than two years ago.

Metro announced Monday that the first of what will be hundreds of 7000s series railcars with new, “repressed” wheels had gone out onto the tracks.

7News first reported on Metro’s plans to reinstall the wheels earlier this year.

“Under the new process, with concurrence from the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission (WMSC), Metro will increase the fit and press tonnage used to mount the wheels to axles on the railcar,” Metro officials said in a press release.

“They are pressing these wheels on the axles, and basically making them hold a little bit tighter, which better matches the weight and size of the 7000 series railcars,” said Max Smith with the WMSC.

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Metro is working on the process for its newest series of trains, the 7000 series, after an October 2021 derailment exposed major safety issues with 7000 series wheels.

Wheels not just on the train car that derailed, but on dozens of other train cars over the previous several years, had moved too far apart.

For a time, the WMSC ordered all 7000 series trains off the tracks, and even after some were bought back, Metro pulled them again at one point.

Through a series of fits and starts, Metro has worked with the WMSC, which oversees Metrorail on safety, to try to return all 7000 series trains to the tracks.

Initially requiring an inspection every day after a train was used, the WMSC has slowly relaxed how often 7000 series trains need to be inspected due to the wheel issue as more data has come in. But the trains still need to be inspected every 30 days, which is often enough that many are out of service at any given time.

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For instance, barely half of the 7000 series railcars were being used by Metro Monday afternoon.

“If it is successful, the plan would be to progress to [a] 60-day interval,” Smith said.

Because it is a slow, complicated process, Metro expects repressing wheels on the entire 7000 series fleet to take several years. The estimated cost will be $55 million.

Metro did not say Monday if it will bear the entire cost or seek to retrieve some of the cost from the train and wheel manufacturers.

Metro began reusing many older trains from the 2000 and 3000 series – which date back to the 1980s – after the derailment.

Metro said as the 7000 series wheel repressing process moves forward, riders will slowly but surely see fewer older trains and more newer trains on the tracks.