FTA to take over WMATA rail safety oversight

Written by Mischa Wanek-Libman, editor
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WMATA

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is moving the safety oversight of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) rail operations to the Federal Transit Administration.

 

The safety oversight authority is granted to FTA through the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) legislation. The authority augments that of the State Safety Oversight Agencies (SSOA), and if necessary, allows FTA to assume those same authorities in the absence of an effective SSO agency.

The move is in response to the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) recommendation that direct safety oversight of WMATA move to the federal realm. In its ongoing investigation into the January 12, 2015, smoke and electrical arcing accident in a tunnel near the L’Enfant Plaza Station in Washington, D.C., the NTSB examined the safety oversight of WMATA’s rail operations in an investigative hearing on June 23. The NTSB said it found little improvement in WMATA’s safety oversight since the 2009 Metrorail accident in Fort Totten that killed nine people.

NTSB originally recommended that the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) take over safety authority from the Tri-State Oversight Committee (TOC), saying “the FRA, unlike the TOC, has robust regulatory and enforcement powers, allowing it to more effectively address hazards and improve the overall safety of WMATA’s rail operations.”

Sec. Foxx responded to NTSB’s recommendations in an Oct. 9 letter, which read, “We agree that the TOC, as currently established, is ineffective. We disagree, however, that the best, most urgent and most effective solution is to transfer safety oversight of WMATA’s rail transit system to the Federal Railroad Administration… FTA has the capability to assert this authority and, at my direction, will do so immediately. This increased oversight means that FTA will now directly enforce and investigate the safety oversight of WMATA Metrorail until the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia establish a fully functioning and capable SSOA.”

Sec. Foxx said the FTA oversight will include unannounced facility inspections, issuance of directives as necessary to address safety deficiencies, as well as coordination of funding from existing resources to carry out the enhanced oversight.

The secretary’s letter also called on WMATA to hire a general manager who is “able to correct the course at the transit agency and aggressively manage the implementation of the Corrective Action Plan.”

Sec. Foxx said not only does FTA have the authority to assume safety oversight, but also WMATA is familiar with FTA’s policies, which could facilitate a speedier safety improvement process versus shifting authority to the FRA, which would separate WMATA bus and rail oversight and possibly cause confusion and delay in corrective action.

The secretary concluded his letter by writing, “Clearly, more needs to be done to ensure that there is sufficient safety oversight of WMATA until a MAP-21-compliant SSO regime is in place. The TOC has submitted a plan to achieve compliance, but it is not achievable in the short term. The approach we have outlined will allow for a ramping up of oversight of WMATA to a level consistent with what would be in place once a fully MAP-21-compliant SSOA is established… Until a fully capable SSO is in place, the FTA will lead all oversight, inspection, and enforcement activities over WMATA.”

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