WMATA, Kawasaki resolve dispute over 7000-series rail cars

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and Kawasaki Rail Car Inc. (KRC) on Feb. 5 announced their resolution of several ongoing contract disputes regarding, among other things, the 2021 Blue Line derailment of a 7000-series rail car that led to the entire 7000-series fleet being grounded.

The National Transportation Safety Board investigated and concluded that wheel migration in the 7000-series rail cars contributed to the derailment. The NTSB investigation did not assign responsibility for the cause of wheel migration, and WMATA and KRC both deny responsibility or contractual liability for the wheel migration and other technical issues that are now resolved as part of a global contract resolution, WMATA officials said in a press release.

The agreement reflects a mutual desire to resolve these issues without litigation, while maintaining a strong and successful partnership for the 7000-series program following the derailment, agency officials said.

As part of the settlement, the parties agreed to reduce WMATA’s remaining contractual payment obligations by up to $35 million, which will offset WMATA’s costs to implement technical changes to the 7000-series rail cars, address wheel migration mitigation and other unrelated efforts, and allow WMATA to reallocate funding to other projects. 

WMATA also agreed to release contractual payments to KRC for achieving reliability and maintainability testing benchmarks and to reduce the amount of KRC’s required performance bond.

"We believe our commitment demonstrates our confidence in KRC as a partner to deliver vehicle reliability throughout the lifecycle of our 7000-series fleet,” said WMATA General Manager and CEO Randy Clarke.

This year marked 15 years since WMATA awarded the contract to KRC to design, produce and deliver the 7000-series rail cars. KRC has delivered all 748 railcars.