FTA issues sixth Safety Directive to WMATA

Written by Mischa Wanek-Libman, editor
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Ben Schumin

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has issued its sixth Safety Directive to Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to address concerns of stop signal overruns.

Safety Directive 16-5 requires 11 corrective actions based on findings of FTA’s Stop Signal Overrun Investigation Report. The report includes findings from FTA‘s spring 2016 “Safety Blitz” assessment of Metrorail and states that, although WMATA has taken steps to prevent stop signal overruns, the agency can do more to identify and mitigate the systemic deficiencies and operational concerns that allow these events to occur.

“The FTA acknowledges WMATA’s commitment to reducing the frequency of stop signal overrun incidents, but it must do better to prevent such incidents and improve its investigation process in order to develop more effective risk-mitigation measures,” said FTA Acting Administrator Carolyn Flowers.

FTA said the investigation was brought about by WMATA rail system’s increase in stop signal overruns in 2015 versus the previous two years; a near-miss collision on Feb. 3, 2016 and the administration’s review of individual stop signal overrun incidents since it assumed direct oversight responsibility in October 2015 identified potential issues that required system-wide analysis and evaluation.

The FTA investigation focused on four main areas: determining the frequency of stop signal overruns on the system, identifying the potential consequences of these events, clarifying contributing factors to these events and assessing the adequacy of WMATA’s actions and programs currently underway to prevent these incidents.

The safety findings detailed in the report address three key areas of concern: a lack of WMATA train operator familiarity with mainline and yard territory, train operator inattention or confusion when departing from a station or terminal or moving under zero speed commands and deficient communications between the train operator and the Rail Operations Control Center. FTA also agrees with a previous stop signal overrun assessment conducted by WMATA in 2014, which found that pressures placed on train operators to maintain schedule for operational reasons may cause or contribute to these events.

Since the FTA issued its Safety Management Inspection report in June 2015, and under the FTA’s direct safety oversight since October 2015, FTA said WMATA has taken a number of critical steps to address the underlying causes that contribute to stop signal overruns. For example, WMATA has revised key operating rules, expanded training for operators and rail traffic controllers, improved adherence to radio protocol and investigated options for modifying the signal system to automatically stop trains at red signals, even when operating in manual modes.

However, the FTA finds that WMATA must increase its efforts and the administration intends to work with WMATA to review, revise and expedite completion of pre-existing corrective actions as appropriate to ensure that WMATA continues to make timely progress towards meeting its safety improvement goals and fulfilling FTA’s requirements.

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