Silver Line Extension Gets Green Light from WMSC

Written by David C. Lester, Editor-in-Chief
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WMATA

The Washington Metro Safety Commission concurs - Silver Line Extension ready.

On November 1, RT&S reported that the Silver Line Extension of Washington, D.C.’s Metro rail system was ready to open and provide service between Washington Dulles international Airport and Loudoun County. The Washington Metrorail Safety Commission (WMSC) announced this week that it agrees that the line is ready to go.

The WMSC released this statement on Twitter:

“The Washington Metrorail Safety Commission (WMSC) has reviewed WMATA’s safety certification of its Silver Line Phase 2 project and Metrorail’s associated documentation package, including documents submitted to the WMSC through yesterday, November 9, 2022.

“Metrorail’s documentaiton package includes evidence of implemented interim and permanent safety mitigations and corrective actions, and information about planned future permanent mitigations for specific known safety hazards identified over the years of work on this project.

“Based on Metrorail completing the necessary safety mitigations this week that Metrorail had identified as required for its safety certification process to mitigate known hazards to ensure the safety of Metrorail riders, workers, and first responders, and based on the WMSC’s extensive work and communication overseeing Metrorail’s safety certification process since 2019, the WMSC today provided Metrorail with the WMSC’s concurrence on Metrorail’s safety certification of Silver Line Phase 2, which allows the project to be activated for passenger use.

“Among other activities, the WMSC’s ongoing review has included extensive onsite checks, documentation reviews, and discussions since the WMSC assumed direct safety oversight of Metrorail in March 2019. The WMSC raised any safety issues as the WMSC identified those issues, and Metrorail incorporated those terms into its safety certification process.

“As has always been the case, the opening date for the line is an operational decision that is made by Metrorail that may occur at any point after Metrorail completed the necessary safety certification steps and the WMSC concurred that those steps to provide for the safety of riders, workers, and first responders were completed by Metrorail.”

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