Norton Says FTA’s WMATA Safety Report Shows Urgent Need for Oversight Reform and Restoration of Federal Safety Funding

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), ranking member of the Highways and Transit Subcommittee, today said the Federal Transit Administration's (FTA) report of its Safety Management Inspection (SMI) of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's (WMATA) rail and bus systems is a "virtual mandate for continuous monitoring of WMATA to guard against safety lapses that cost lives." While Norton agreed with FTA Acting Administrator Therese McMillian's assessment at a press conference this morning that WMATA is not unsafe, major changes in WMATA's regional oversight and an increase in staffing and training resources are essential to "erasing a significant gap in safety for both riders and WMATA employees." For example, the FTA found inadequate staffing and procedures at the Rail Operations Control Center; inadequate training of roadway, operations, and maintenance workers; issues with system-wide maintenance; insufficient track time for maintenance; and insufficient efforts to prevent and manage conditions that can cause smoke in tunnels.

"I took special note of progress the FTA's report noted in WMATA's actions to improve its safety culture six years removed from the tragic 2009 Red Line that took the lives of nine D.C.-area residents," Norton said. "However, that is insufficient comfort considering violations of safety protocols requested in MAP-21 that FTA found. No matter how you cut it, Metro still has a safety culture problem, especially at its Rail Operations Control Center, which manages abnormal and emergency events, like the smoke incident that occurred at L'Enfant Plaza Metro Station. The need to quickly implement FTA's urgent safety directives should be the last word on pending cuts for capital safety improvements to WMATA. In light of the report's recommendations, cuts would recklessly under-cut Metro's safety efforts in the coming months."

Congress gave FTA new safety oversight authority over WMATA and other transit agencies for the first time in the 2012 MAP-21 surface transportation bill following the tragic 2009 Red Line crash that killed nine D.C.-area residents. Today's report discussed only the second comprehensive safety evaluation of WMATA conducted by FTA since the 2009 crash. MAP-21 placed continuous oversight responsibilities on new state agencies called State Safety Oversight Agencies (SSOAs), but most SSOAs, including the D.C. region's Tri-State Oversight Committee, are still ramping up in order to come into compliance with MAP-21 safety and oversight requirements.

FTA's SMI 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 included 54 safety findings: 44 for Metrorail and 10 for Metrobus.