Accidents on the Washington MetroRail system killed 17 people between 2005 and 2010. Although there have been only three fatalities since the end of 2010, a new Federal Transit Administration report warns that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) remains lax about safety and numerous dangerous situations remain.
Several people died in a 2009 collision when one of the system’s original cars “telescoped” into another. The National Transportation Safety Board ordered WMATA to replace those older cars, but it is still running them. Wikimedia Commons photo by the NTSB.
Most media attention has been given to FTA’s findings regarding WMATA’s rail control center. The control room is understaffed, says the report, and what staff members they have are poorly trained and frequently distracted by cell phone calls, muzak, and other things unrelated to their work. The report hints that some accidents that WMATA has previously blamed on train operators may actually have been the fault of train controllers, whose actions were rarely questioned.
But the control center is not the only safety hazard in the system. FTA reports that the number of incidents of fire and smoke in the tunnels more than doubled between 2013 and 2014, partly due to obsolete ventilation systems and poorly maintained electrical systems. Of course, a similar incident in 2015 led to the death of a passenger and injured 90 others.
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The report also found that WMATA has cut the number of track inspectors in half. While this probably contributed to the number of inspector fatalities, it doesn’t help keep the system in good shape.
After the 2009 collision that killed nine people, the National Transportation Safety Board did a review and directed WMATA to make many safety changes. The new FTA report finds that 38 of NTSB’s orders have not yet been followed.
FTA and NTSB can talk about safety, but the real problem is funding. If the money spent on the Silver Line had been spent on maintenance instead, virtually all of the issues in this report would have been fixed already. But politicians would rather fund new projects than maintain the ones they funded in the past.
The result is that the Washington Metro system, which was once a proud achievement, is now a great embarrassment. The region’s population is growing faster than 1.5 percent per year. Yet the American Public Transportation Association reports that MetroRail ridership fell nearly 1 percent in 2014, while 2013 ridership was nearly 2.7 percent below 2012 and 2012 was 3.2 percent below 2011. Much of this decline is due to passengers disgruntled by delays, broken rails, smoke in the tunnels, and other maintenance issues.
This should be a lesson for other cities that are building or want to build rail transit lines. Rails are a lot more expensive than just the initial construction cost, and few agencies budget for that long-term expense. Unfortunately, too many politicians are too eager to get “free” federal dollars to learn this lesson.
Within the last 2 weeks I exited a WMATA train because of the smoking brakes (and it was a lot of smoke). I got off during the “pause” after boarding/deboarding was completed. The driver leaned out her window and yelled back at me: “Is that smoke?” I said it was, she kicked everyone off the train and put it out of service.
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Such are the inspection and safety procedures of the WMATA.
The irony of the situation is that I didn’t notice the smoke because I was having such a pleasurable conversation with a friend that I hadn’t seen in a long time. That’s right, I was “enjoying” the circumstances of the WMATA commute when I suddenly realized the train was smoldering.
FTA and NTSB can talk about safety, but the real problem is funding. If the money spent on the Silver Line had been spent on maintenance instead, virtually all of the issues in this report would have been fixed already. But politicians would rather fund new projects than maintain the ones they funded in the past.
Its funny how he states the issue was funding but doesn’t mention that the funding for the new Silver line is paid solely by the state of Virginia, Fairfax County (VA), Loudoun County (VA), toll users (in VA) and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and NOT WMATA or MD and DC residents, unless they were commuting through the tolls, so I doubt those entities would have agreed to fund the entire DC subway for the needed maintenance, so stating where that NEW funding came from might make your statement less biased and have more merit to it.
The region’s population is growing faster than 1.5 percent per year. Yet the American Public Transportation Association reports that MetroRail ridership fell nearly 1 percent in 2014, while 2013 ridership was nearly 2.7 percent below 2012 and 2012 was 3.2 percent below 2011. Much of this decline is due to passengers disgruntled by delays, broken rails, smoke in the tunnels, and other maintenance issues.
I might agree with you that maintenance issues have affected some of the decline in ridership but I would also add that recently the Federal government starting giving more in parking subsidies in the city than transit subsidies which also has discouraged transit ridership as well.