Third rail caused Thursday postpones on Red Line
A problem near Silver Spring station on the third rail, which supplies the power for Metro trains, caused delays during Thursday morning’s commute.
The troubled piece of the rail was discovered about 5:30 a.m. by crews.
Dan Stessel, Metro’s chief spokesman, said “there was a power problem where the breakers were tripping.”
Trains were delayed in the morning commute between 5 to 15 minutes in both directions as crews worked to replace a portion of the third rail in the area.
Service returned to normal by 12:45 p.m.
Stessel said the problem was coincidental and was not related to work that was done in that area of the Red Line over weekend. That work, he said, involved doing “platform replacement and fiber optic cable installation” in the area between Forest Glen and Takoma stations. Fiber optic cable is laid in the ground under the track, he said.