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FACTBOX-Facts about DC Metro subway

23 Jun 2009 14:09:29 GMT
Source: Reuters

June 23 (Reuters) - Seven people died and 76 were taken to hospitals after two Washington, D.C., subway trains collided in the Monday afternoon rush hour. It was the deadliest crash of the transit system's 33-year-old history.

Here are some facts about the Metro transit line from transit and public safety officials, federal and local safety records and financial sources:

* Monday's accident was the first crash with a passenger fatality since 1982 when three people were killed in a derailment.

* Other notable Metro train crashes in the past dozen years included one in 2007 that injured 16 people. A 2004 collision on the same line as Monday's incident injured 20 people.

* The Metrorail and Metrobus services serve a population of 3.5 million people within an area of 1,500 square miles (3,890 square km). The subway had a total of 215.3 million trips in the last fiscal year.

* Riddled with an infrastructure that includes leaking tunnels and crumbling platforms, Metro estimates it will need more than $7 billion to keep its system of trains and buses in a state of good repair through 2020. It also projects it will need to replace one-third of its rail cars, some of which are more than 30 years old.

* The U.S. recession has forced Metro to cut its operating budgets this fiscal year by 10 percent, freeze hiring and end outside contracts. Last month, it had to tap reserves to close a funding gap for fiscal year 2010 that at one point was projected to reach $154 million.

* Standard & Poors raised the system's credit rating in April. (Reporting by Lisa Lambert and John Crawley; Editing by Paul Simao)

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