Frustrated Regional Transportation District light rail train riders on the southeast corridor who want to go more than 10 mph might have to wait until September, its CEO said Friday.

Blame it on the track burn. 

In addition to the ongoing coping panel repairs to the walls along the corridor, RTD CEO Debra Johnson said repairs to damaged rails is slowing trains for safety reasons.

Repairs to the rails are taking place mostly at night, she said from the platform of the Orchard light rail station.

As part of the district’s regular maintenance schedule, tracks are visually inspected for “rail burns,” otherwise known as scuff marks left by train wheels that skid or spin on the rail surface, leaving marks that can turn into cracks.

Typically, the scuff marks are a few inches long, but can get worse over time, said Dave Jensen, assistant general manager of rail operations, who is in charge of the repair programs.

Repair usually involves cutting out the damage section of rail and welding new rail in place. While rail burns can turn into cracks that can cause a derailment, continuing to run trains at low speed avoids much of the risk, while meeting federal rail safety standards, according to Jensen.

Johnson said safety is her priority and doesn’t want to chance a rail break, so rather than extending the service impacts by following the ongoing wall repairs with rail repairs, it was decided to deal with the rail burns at the same time.

Responding to a question about the safety, reliability, and efficiency of RTD’s light rail system, Johnson, who arrived by train, said: “Our system is operationally safe or we would not be standing here seeing trains traverse the tracks in the background because when it comes to the safety, I am not going to play around with that.”

RTD is proactively addressing these issues to prevent future problems, said Jensen.

The maintenance work is being done section by section, primarily overnight to minimize inconvenience to riders, he said, and is expected to be far along by September.

“We’re moving 750 trains a day over the same corridors, and so as they hit that spot in the track, it could cause it to grow,” Jensen said. “So, what we did in May was we adopted different standards, which were the American Public Transportation Association standards. And the APTA track standards is when the rail burn gets to be three inches, then we have to issue a restriction and take mitigation action.”

Jensen said RTD inspectors ride trains two times a week through the entire alignment and they walk the entire alignment once every 90 days looking for rail burns and other damage.

Riders who depend on rail transit due to disabilities can be transported using other modes, according to Johnson.

“We do have other services available,” she said. “Paratransit services and individuals who may need to get to specific appointments actually can be conditionally considered to utilize the on-demand service, and those are for people who aren’t able to use the fixed transit system as provided with the American with Disabilities Act of 1990.”

Both Johnson and Jensen acknowledged that these maintenance issue are annoying to riders, but said it’s a necessary imposition to keep the system operating safely.

The repairs to the southeast corridor coincide with RTD shutting down all the central business district light rail trains, disrupting traffic and pedestrian flow, as officials work to replace 30-year-old track line. All trains are now heading to Union Station if riders want to get downtown.