FTA says WMATA has “serious safety lapses”

Written by Mischa Wanek-Libman, editor
image description

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) recently conducted an inspection of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) rail and bus systems that identified "organizational deficiencies and operational concerns that significantly limit WMATA's ability to recognize and resolve safety issues."

 

In a statement, FTA said it “found serious safety lapses in Metrorail’s Rail Operations Control Center, which schedules and conducts maintenance work, manages abnormal and emergency events, and ensures the safety of trains and personnel on the right-of-way. In key areas, WMATA is not effectively balancing safety-critical operations and maintenance activities with the demand for passenger service.”

“These are serious findings that strongly indicate that, despite gains made since the Fort Totten accident, WMATA’s safety program is inadequate,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx. “WMATA management, its board of directors and its state safety oversight agency must work together to address FTA’s required actions, because the safety of passengers and personnel must be the top priority.”

FTA conducted the Safety Management Inspection (SMI) and evaluated WMATA’s operations and maintenance programs, safety management capabilities and organizational structures to assess compliance with its own procedures and rules, existing federal regulations and FTA Safety Advisories to ensure safety for its passengers, employees and system infrastructure. The SMI report includes 54 safety findings: 44 for Metrorail and 10 for Metrobus.

FTA is issuing a Safety Directive to WMATA identifying required actions for each of the safety findings and is requesting the WMATA Board to determine what changes to its Fiscal Year 2016 budget may be necessary to effectively implement the corrective actions.

“WMATA must commit to more employee safety training, increased track time for maintenance work, and a greater effort at identifying and reducing safety risks to deliver the level of safety its passengers and employees deserve,” said FTA Acting Administrator Therese McMillan.

Full details of the Safety Directive can be found on the FTA’s website.

This isn’t the first time WMATA has found itself under the safety spotlight. Following a June 2009 collision between two of its trains in which the National Transportation Safety Board said a “lack of safety culture” was a contributing factor, WMATA took on a multi-year effort to better its safety initiatives. Actions taken by WMATA following the 2009 accident included the establishment of a safety management system, an effort to reduce employee and customer injury rates, launching a confidential close call reporting program, developing a fatigue risk management program and continuing investments in critical infrastructure.

Tags: