Metro said then that the closings happened only on rare instances when trains made brief stops at station platforms, departing before the automated arrival message sequence for “doors opening” ended. After the incidents, operators were told to keep doors open until the warning played.

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Metro is expected to upgrade the door software by May, safety commission officials said at the panel’s monthly meeting.

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Metro on Thursday described the problem with door notifications as relatively minor and long resolved. Spokesman Dan Stessel declined to comment further on the commission’s report, saying Metro is focused on the global pandemic.

Sharmila Samarasinghe, the safety commission’s chief operating officer, said that while problems with the closing doors is infrequent, it is a major safety concern for some riders. The recorded warning is critical to alert passengers entering and exiting the trains, especially those who are visually impaired. It is also a federal requirement listed in the Americans With Disabilities Act.

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“A passenger could be injured or trapped between doors,” she said.

Metro at the time said rail car engineers and technicians conducted an inspection of all 7000-series cars and found no other glitches. But they found that the rail cars’ audible messaging system can play only one informational message at a time. The software upgrade will fix that.

The commission, an independent government body that oversees Metro safety, also provided an update on the investigation into three instances last year in which trains were misrouted.

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In one case, an Orange Line train bound for New Carrollton ended up on the Blue Line tracks to Largo Town Center after a Rail Operations Control Center controller set an incorrect route for the train operator, who then failed to notify control center of the mistake.

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The train was offloaded at Benning Road Station, and the passengers boarded an inbound train to return to Stadium Armory to continue to New Carrollton, the commission report said.

Metro has cited signal problems as the cause of misrouted trains in past incidents.

At Thursday’s meeting, commission officials said they found human error played a role in all three of the 2019 incidents, and they urged better communication between the control center and train operators.

Metro has taken some steps that have helped reduce the incidence of misrouted trains, such as issuance of bulletins to controllers providing additional guidance on avoiding setting incorrect routes, and requiring them to acknowledge and confirm routes to ensure proper routes are maintained.

At its Thursday meeting, the safety commission also said it continued to conduct inspections on the ongoing work of the second phase of the Silver Line project.

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David L. Mayer, chief executive of the commission, said Metro asked the agency in December to do enhanced inspections as part of its safety oversight responsibilities and in doing so add another layer of scrutiny to ensure that the rail line is safe to carry passengers.