The entire Metro system in Washington DC will shut down from midnight for 29 hours of safety inspections, officials have announced.
The unprecedented move, which commuters swiftly dubbed #Metromageddon, comes after an electric cable caught fire before the subway system in the nation's capital opened on Monday.
The blaze, outside the McPherson Square station in the city centre, spawned morning rush-hour delays on the orange, blue and silver lines.
Metro general manager Paul Wiedefeld said around 600 "jumper cables" along all tunnel segments throughout the system, the second-biggest in the US, need to be checked.
"At the conclusion of the inspection process, there may be a need for additional rail service outages," Mr Wiedefeld added.
The rail system will reopen at 5am on Thursday, he added.
The federal government has told workers they can take unscheduled leave or telework on Wednesday.
The city's metro has been under scrutiny since a woman died and 86 other commuters were injured when an electrical malfunction filled a tunnel with smoke near L'Enfant Plaza station last year.
A National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the January 2015 blaze found chronic issues with electrical wiring, crumbling equipment and under-trained staff.
"While the risk to the public is very low, I cannot rule out a potential life safety issue here, and that is why we must take action immediately," the Metro's manager said in Tuesday's statement.
While the system has been closed on rare occasions for weather reasons, this is the first time the entire network has been shut for maintenance.
The transit network has such a dire track record that the Washington Post has an ongoing web page chronicling "Metro's biggest meltdowns", dating back to April 2012.
The metro, which opened in 1976, has six lines and 91 stations transporting 710,000 passengers daily from the District to Maryland and Virginia.
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