An outbound Metro train carrying 75 passengers derailed Friday morning in Northern Virginia, forcing one station to close but causing no serious injuries, authorities said.
The incident happened at 6:15 a.m. at an interlocking area on the system’s Silver Line. The train was headed to the Wiehle-Reston East station when the fourth and fifth cars of the train came off the tracks, Metro officials said.
Firefighters from Arlington County called it a “minor” derailment.
It was not immediately clear exactly what caused it to derail. Metro officials said it is under investigation and the Federal Transit Administration has been notified. Metro said train service in that part of the tracks will not be restored for the evening commute.
The passengers were evacuated onto the tracks, Metro officials said. One passenger was taken to a local hospital for evaluation, but other details weren’t immediately known
Metro shut down the East Falls Church station, near where the derailment happened, and stopped trains on the Orange and Silver lines from running on parts of the tracks. The transit agency set up buses to shuttle riders around the closed sections.
For riders, there was a sense of worry, relief that it wasn’t worse, and frustration as they had to deal with getting around in their morning commutes.
Passenger Chandler Davis, 36, who was traveling from D.C. toward Reston, said he was sitting on the right side of the train in a car near the rear. He had leaned his head against the window to try to catch a few extra minutes of sleep.
Suddenly, the train tilted to the right, slammed to the left, and then tilted right again — and Davis’s head banged against the window, he said. He recalled that it took about five minutes for a Metro employee to enter the train and assist passengers.
In the interim, people were panicked.
“There were screams and confusion,” Davis recalled. Davis said it took about 15 to 20 minutes for passengers to be evacuated from the train. He was taken to a hospital for evaluation.
Another passenger on the train, Santo Butler, 37, of Arlington, said the ride started slow as the train left the Ballston station and gained speed as it headed to the East Falls Church stop. He said he “felt a bump like we rolled over something.”
“After that a couple of larger bumps and we skidded towards the fence,” he said. There was a “burst of sparks from outside the train and we all knew what happened and that it could have been worse.”
After the derailment, the usual commuter headaches began as long lines and crowds formed at the East Falls Church stop as riders waited on shuttle buses to get there. Many riders said there was confusion and little direction from Metro employees as to where to go and where buses were headed.
It wasn’t known when Metro service would resume in the area.
The derailment wasn’t the only challenge for Metro riders Friday morning. Unrelated issues also brought delays on Red, Green and Yellow lines.
The derailment comes as Metro has launched a major overhaul to try to improve safety on its rail system that stretches throughout the region. The SafeTrack program as it is known has involved shutting down portions of the rail lines and stations, leaving commuters to find alternate ways to get around the area.
The first phase of SafeTrack in June involved 13 days of Metro crews working on the Silver and Orange lines from Ballston to East Falls Church. Metro’s chief spokesman Dan Stessel said Friday that the derailment happened outside the SafeTrack work zone.
One of the last times a train derailed on Metro was in August 2015. The Orange Line train was not carrying any passengers at the time when it went off the rails at the New Carrolton and Federal Triangle stops.