Metro solicits outside help with crash investigation

WASHINGTON - Metro says it doesn't know why a section of track in the area of the Red Line crash continues to malfunction -- and now the agency is looking to others for answers.

A team of track experts assembled by the American Public Transportation Association will comb through the Metrorail system in the coming days and deliver a report to the agency.

The investigation into the June 22 collision has focused on a "fluttering" track circuit that could have lost sight of one or both of the trains involved in the crash.

If that is the case, the striking train could have been "told" to proceed forward, even though the tracks ahead were occupied.

Meanwhile, General Manager John Catoe says he has been contacted by numerous firms that say they have the fix to the issue of trains vanishing from Metro's computer monitoring system in the area of the collision.

"I have received emails, saying that they have the solution to our issue," Catoe said Thursday.

Metro officials say they have been contacted by dozens of firms who believe they can help.

This week, the National Transportation Safety Board made an urgent recommendation to Metro to develop a system that can evaluate track occupancy data on a real-time basis in order to detect losses in track occupancy and automatically generate alerts.

Metro leaders say that type of system does not exist, and it will have to be built from the ground up. The transit agency says it met with a "roomful" of people Wednesday and is listening to all suggestions.

"My suspicions in looking at how complex this has to be, is that it is going to be a pretty large project," Catoe says.

That isn't welcome news to riders who will most likely have to deal with trains operating in manual mode for some time to come. Manual mode means slower speeds in spots and potentially longer commutes.

In trying to develop this new "real-time train monitoring system," Metro says it has also been contacted by a former employee of the BART system in San Francisco, the transit system that most closely resembles Metro. The employee says he has a patent for a signal system that could fit Metro's needs.

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