Passengers at the Bethesda Metro station travel about 212 feet to get to the platform on the second-longest escalator in the Western Hemisphere.
To get out, they use the same escalators. It’s a long way to the top.
The evacuation of the station was on the minds of Montgomery County Councilmembers at a meeting with Metro officials Tuesday afternoon. Councilmember Marc Elrich asked if the evacuation time was substantially longer than the National Fire Protection Association’s six-minute standard for evacuating subway stations.
A Metro official noted that the NFPA standard did not exist when the Bethesda station was opened in 1984 and was designed for new construction projects.
Councilmember Tom Hucker then pressed the issue further, asking if Metro knows how long it takes to evacuate the Bethesda station.
Denton Rourke, operations manager for Metro’s Office of Emergency Management, said officials didn’t have the numbers on hand, but that it would take longer than six minutes.
Charlie Scott, a government liaison for Metro, said Metro has estimated the evacuation time in the past, but he couldn’t remember if the agency has simulated an evacuation at the station.
Hucker asked that Metro provide the evacuation time that its current modeling shows and also that the transit operator hold live drills to verify the time.
Metro did not immediately respond to a Bethesda Beat request to provide the estimated evacuation time after the Tuesday afternoon meeting.
The evacuation time may also be affected by the fact that Metro currently has one of the three escalators closed as part of a long-term project to replace the escalators. The project started in October and Metro estimated it would take about 2 1/2 years to complete.
The issue came up during a discussion about safety measures undertaken by Metro after the fatal L’Enfant smoke incident in January that left one woman dead and more than 80 injured.
The Metro officials at Tuesday’s council committee meeting said that since the incident, external safety reviews are being conducted by outside organizations, communication in tunnels is being frequently tested and that track walkers are regularly sent to evaluate the condition of the insulation protecting the electrified third rail. Metro has also given train operators the ability to control train intake fans to allow them to turn to exhaust if smoke is present in a tunnel, the officials said.
The National Transportation Safety Board found preliminary evidence the smoke in the L’Enfant incident was caused by an arcing insulator, which happens when debris or water comes in contact with the electrified third rail.
The tunnel that stretches from Friendship Heights to the Medical Center station in Bethesda is prone to arcing insulators, according to an October report from Metro. The tunnel has several leaks that cause about one third of the transit system’s arcing insulator incidents, Metro reported. The tunnel is slated for repairs in the summer and fall of 2016.
Councilmember Roger Berliner said he wanted more assurance from Metro that arcing insulators will not present safety problems in the future.
“Our goal is to give you the resources you need,” Berliner said, in reference to handling possible emergency safety issues at the station.
