Investigators find 'anomalies' in subway track circuits

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Transportation investigators Wednesday discovered "anomalies" in an essential control circuit of a track where a fatal crash between two Washington subway trains killed nine people.

Each section of the transit system's track contains a circuit that transmits and receives signals that generate speed commands for trains, said Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board. She said the circuits are "vital providing information to the operators and the train itself when on automatic."

Investigators found no problems in five of the six circuits on the 740-foot-long stretch of track in the crash area. But they found "anomalies" with the sixth circuit, Hersman said.

She would not say what those anomalies were but said simulated crash tests would be conducted to try and determine what caused the deadly accident.

The findings could mean that the striking train, which was on automatic, did not know to slow down because another train was stopped on the track ahead.

Hersman said investigators walked the tracks Wednesday, finding markings on the track that indicated emergency braking had taken place.

Investigators hoped Thursday to interview the operator of the struck train, who was released from a hospital Wednesday. The driver of the striking train was killed.

The crash, the worst in the history of Washington's transit system, known as the Metro, occurred along the congested Red Line just before 5 p.m. Monday on an above-ground track section near Takoma Park, Maryland.

Both cars were on the same track, traveling in the same direction - southward from Fort Totten Metrorail station to the Shady Grove station. The struck train had stopped behind another train undergoing service and was awaiting directions to move ahead.

The striking train was pulling some of the oldest cars in the fleet of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority .

On Wednesday, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said he plans to seek $3 billion for Metro transit capital improvements, some of which would likely be spent to replace some those old Series 1000 cars, purchased between 1974 and 1978.