WMATA to perform additional work to enhance safety

Written by Mischa Wanek-Libman, editor
image description
A rail crane preparing to place a train back on track following the East Falls Church derailment.
WMATA

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) may include additional weekend closures in the SafeTrack schedule to address issues identified following the East Falls Church derailment and updated steps taken to improve WMATA's track inspection program.

“Safety trumps service, now more than ever at Metro. The SafeTrack program is intended to make our tracks safe and reliable, and I have reinstructed the team to ensure we are addressing every issue out there, including interlockings,” General Manager/CEO Paul J. Wiedefeld said. “I will continue to notify our riders of any service changes as quickly as possible, but we are not backing off of safety over service.”

Following the derailment at East Falls Church, Wiedefeld ordered a new round of inspections for all interlockings conducted by rail maintenance supervisors with track engineers participating. Those inspections have identified several interlockings that require work. As a result, SafeTrack Surge 7 now includes a complete shutdown this weekend between Grosvenor and Shady Grove Stations so the interlocking at Twinbrook can be repaired. The track maintenance team is reviewing the remaining SafeTrack schedule and will consider additional weekend shutdowns during Surges 8-15 to address conditions identified by the latest inspections.

In addition, WMATA noted that it is taking several steps to improve track safety, specifically in the areas of inspection and training of personnel including:

  • Awarded contract in July 2016 for engineering consultants to conduct a complete asset inventory – essentially examine the entire rail system and have an outside expert review all track conditions.
  • Awarded contract in August 2016 for outside experts will rewrite the track inspection manual.
  • Contract to be awarded soon for a complete overhaul of the track inspection training program. Over the next 10 months the curriculum will be rewritten, WMATA trainers will receive instruction and then WMATA’s program will be audited by the experts.
  • Next month, while this larger training overhaul is underway, expert trainers from the University of Tennessee’s Center of Transportation Research will visit WMATA to conduct two weeks of intensive training for track inspectors to improve their ability to identify and categorize track defects. The University of Tennessee has 25 years of experience in railroad training and its courses meet Federal Railroad Administration standards.

Deteriorated crossties have been faulted with the East Falls Church derailment in July. This week, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) released a Track Integrity Investigation Report and issued a 12-action Safety Directive to the agency.

Within the Track Integrity Investigation Report, FTA wrote of the East Falls Church derailment:

“FTA’s preliminary determination of probable cause regarding the July 29, 2016, derailment near the East Falls Church Station…indicates systemic safety deficiencies in the inspection, maintenance and repair of track.

“In response to this derailment, WMATA has committed to performing detailed, supervisory preinspections of all turnouts, switches and crossovers required to be used to facilitate SafeTrack closures and single tracking operations. WMATA also will start an immediate special supervisory inspection of all crossovers on mainline tracks. Finally, WMATA will perform quality audits of both SafeTrack and mainline supervisory inspections. The FTA expects WMATA to continue these actions through the remainder of the SafeTrack program, and will be monitoring the performance and quality of these inspections.”

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