WASHINGTON (WUSA9) -- Track problems were detected prior to last week's derailment at the Smithsonian Metro Station, Metro General Manager Jack Requa said in a press conference Wednesday.
Train service was suspended on the Blue, Orange and Silver Lines between Federal Center and McPherson Square last Thursday morning while crews worked on the derailment. It was restored in the afternoon with trains single-tracking and skipping the Smithsonian and Federal Triangle stations through the evening rush hour.
On Wednesday, Requa said the track problems that caused the derailment were detected around July 9th, but almost a month went by before the problem was addressed.
The derailment was not an operator or train problem. Requa called last week's incident a wide gauge derailment where the running rails are wider than the specified distance.
For the customers affected by the derailment, Metro issued a refund to their SmarTrip cards. Requa said over 158,000 people were refunded at an estimated cost of $750,000.
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