"YOLO"
I read awhile back that some of the rails between Woodley Park - Metro Center still date back to system opening, is that true? If so the broken rail report isn't too surprising I guess...
On tangent segments likely yes, however based on reports the location of the derailment was in the curve west of 15th Street.
It is my opinion the rail WMATA has procured after the Bethlehem Steelton buy out is inferior to the rail rolled before buy out. We didn't have these kinds of cracked / broken issues prior to the mid 1990s.
"srepetsk"
While this was noted in the audio at one point, it was partially garbled and no other personnel in TRST or MTPD repeated or used the same language. It's certainly still a possibility, but without additional confirmation I'm not sure we can say this was the definite cause.
I heard it loud and clear on the Internet feed at
www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/21606/web. The person on the radio said he was returning to the location of the broken rail.
John in the sand box of Maryland's eastern shore.