Permanent project revision
Revision 2026-08-20-claim-baseline · effective 2026-07-26
Superseded. A later revision exists: 2026-08-21-source-dates →
Created the first structured Evidence Passport with 8 claims and 9 source dossiers.
sha256:9539a9d7b2123be4f30de7c159ecaf6ece8e83b15d89975246bc73b5717fb385
add /evidencePassport — Added claim-level evidence mapping and source dossiers.add /revisionHistory — Established a permanent, hash-addressed baseline revision.The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.
clm-42d49d70695d3bc3
quantitative
Metro trains drove themselves between stations from the system's 1976 opening until June 2009, when WMATA put the whole network into manual mode within about a day of the Fort Totten rear-end collision that killed nine people
clm-3c654d0ee914fa41
descriptive
The NTSB traced the crash to track circuit modules that stopped detecting a standing train and to a verification test WMATA never rolled out system-wide — not to the driving automation that was turned off
clm-9668434a6a942e38
quantitative
Automatic train operation came back line by line: Red on 15 December 2024, Green and Yellow on 23 May 2025, Blue, Orange and Silver on 15 June 2025, each step needing the safety commission's concurrence
clm-624c70fc51365c11
descriptive
Operators stay in the cab, working the doors and watching the track
clm-4829a166cdaab5e3
quantitative
end-to-end travel times down 8 minutes on the Red Line after several months under ATO, 1-2 minutes on the Green and Yellow lines and about 3 minutes each on the Blue, Orange and Silver lines from 22 June 2025; WMATA reports no red signal violations by trains in ATO
clm-bb2074e4b2697405
quantitative
217 station overruns under ATO since December 2024, roughly ten times the manual-mode rate, which WMATA called 'a reliability problem and not a safety problem'
clm-f8c47b10895792cd
quantitative
the safety commission withheld concurrence for expansion until WMATA scheduled a software update and a new antenna normalisation procedure for 7000 Series railcars
clm-3834e40fb67b6ec3
descriptive
Switching working automation off after a disaster takes a day; switching it back on took fifteen years, a regulator's line-by-line concurrence and a fix to how railcars sense their own position — even though the crash investigation blamed train detection, not the driving mode
This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.
Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.
sha256:9539a9d7b2123be4f30de7c159ecaf6ece8e83b15d89975246bc73b5717fb385
src-ff25026366c51ce7Probable cause: 'a failure of the track circuit modules ... that caused the automatic train control system to lose detection of train 214 and thus transmit speed commands to train 112 up to the point of impact', plus WMATA's failure to institutionalise the enhanced track circuit verification test developed after the 2005 Rosslyn near-collisions. 'Nine people aboard train 112, including the train operator, were killed'; 52 people were transported to hospitals. None of the 25 recommendations calls for suspending automatic train operation.
src-8c2e334e7d825410Full report behind the probable cause quoted above; also the source of the telescoping detail (the rear car of train 214 telescoped about 63 feet, some 84 percent of the length of the lead car of train 112) and the $12 million equipment damage estimate.
src-ec26d994448f08daATO starts on the Red Line on 15 December 2024. ATO 'controls the trains' acceleration, deceleration, and speed' from commands sent by trackside equipment, while operators 'will remain responsible for the safety of the customers aboard their trains' and keep monitoring track conditions, train status and door operations.
src-b788df0931694d5a'Automatic Train Operation (ATO) is coming to the Green and Yellow lines on Friday, May 23 after rigorous internal training and testing and concurrence from the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission.' Also: end-to-end Red Line trips cut by 8 minutes since December, with no red signal violations under ATO.
src-ada7b445b21d55dcBlue, Orange and Silver switch on 15 June 2025, 'the first full return to ATO since 2009'; end-to-end times fall by about 3 minutes on all three lines from 22 June, after the Yellow and Green lines 'began using ATO in May' with savings of 1-2 minutes.
src-f5b3fae6eefb4b08Lists what Metrorail must do to receive WMSC concurrence for ATO on the Green and Yellow lines, including 'a detailed performance schedule outlining milestones and timelines for the implementation of software update and the new antenna normalization procedure for 7000 Series railcars', an interim roadway-worker protection measure, and monthly rules-compliance reports. The regulator, not WMATA, controlled the pace of the rollout.
src-44282517cef04710Source of the overrun counterweight: 217 trains under ATO overran station stops since December, about ten times the number under manual driving, 38 percent of them by three or more cars, with doors staying shut during an overrun; WMATA confirmed the count, called it 'a reliability problem and not a safety problem' and pointed to zero red signal violations in ATO. Cause traced to false marker coil detection. Page returned 403 to automated fetching; existence and content confirmed through two independent search passes and corroborated by the WMSC filing above.
src-a39e04cc31f9a0caCurrency check: 'As of summer 2025, all Metro trains already run via Automatic Train Operation (ATO), which controls the train's acceleration and speed, but still requires a train operator to be in the cab.' The board voted to endorse full Red Line automation plus platform screen doors at 20 of 27 stops; '$913 million' still to be secured; 'not be finished on the Red Line until 2032 at the earliest'.
src-3872a0d940bfc549Independent trade-press confirmation of the completed rollout and of the per-line travel-time figures (8 minutes Red; about 3 minutes Blue, Orange, Silver; 1-2 minutes Yellow, Green), noting the rollout 'followed internal training and testing and concurrence from the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission'.