Overview
- A broken DC Water pipe allowed water into a Red Line control room near Van Ness, degrading signal equipment and triggering widespread delays.
- Metro has run adjusted schedules to manage traffic, with shorter headways in some segments and longer, 10–12 minute waits between Friendship Heights and Dupont Circle.
- Crews worked through the night at the control room to dry and test aging signaling gear and remain on site as repairs and validation continue.
- Metro general manager Randy Clarke confirmed the affected signaling equipment is about 50 years old, highlighting how legacy systems magnified the outage from an external utility failure.
- Riders should expect intermittent delays and occasional offloads at Dupont Circle and can follow Metro updates on X and MetroPulse for restoration progress.