Light rail disruptions hit Seattle twice in three days

Ventilation Issues Trigger Repeated Light Rail Outages Within Days

Riders on Sound Transit?s light rail system were forced to find new routes twice in three days after ventilation system problems shut down stations and trains in Seattle.

SEATTLE - Riders on Sound Transit’s light rail system were forced to find new routes twice in three days after ventilation system problems shut down stations and trains in Seattle. 

What we know:

Sound Transit said the most recent issue happened during overnight testing when fans at the University of Washington Station "were not functioning as intended." Because the fans are part of the emergency fire safety system, passengers are not allowed in tunnels when they fail. A spokesperson assures at "no point was any person in our system in danger." 

The shutdown forced passengers off trains and onto buses between the University District and Westlake stations on Saturday.

"Sometimes you just kind of find out by surprise — oops, we’re here, things aren’t necessarily running as they should be," said Nat Desjardins, a rider at Capitol Hill Station, where crowds scrambled to find alternate transportation.

Dig deeper:

Sound Transit says it is working on a root cause analysis of both the University of Washington outage and a similar one at Beacon Hill earlier this year, where there was an interruption in the power supply to the fan system.

"I was a little annoyed that it’s happening so frequently, but if they have issues and it’s a safety thing, it is what it is," another rider told FOX 13. "It would be great if they could communicate more about these things that they’re doing to fix it."

The ventilation fans are designed to remove smoke in the event of a fire, giving passengers time to evacuate. The equipment is also required under fire code.

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