FRA to Oversee DC Metro?

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The Davy Crockett

The Davy Crockett

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How bad has DC's Metrorail gotten? :unsure:

Well...

There are reports that the NTSB is expected to make an urgent recommendation to the federal DOT this afternoon that the FRA take over safety oversight of Metro. :eek:

That is pretty radical. Possibly unprecedented.

Did the Pope have anything to do with this? :)
 
The Davy Crockett said:
How bad has DC's Metrorail gotten? :unsure:

Well...

There are reports that the NTSB is expected to make an urgent recommendation to the federal DOT this afternoon that the FRA take over safety oversight of Metro. :eek:

That is pretty radical. Possibly unprecedented.

Did the Pope have anything to do with this? :)
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It will also be unprecedented if the Federal DOT does anything with an NTSB recommendation immediately without placing it in a circular file for at least a while. :)
 
The FTA already has safety oversight for Metrorail through the Tri-State Oversight Committee. This move would require reclassifying Metrorail as a commuter rail system. The FRA has more 'teeth' than the FTA. As far as I know, the only comparable system the FRA oversees is PATH in NY/NJ. The NTSB's chairman, Christopher Hart, cites "repeated and ongoing deficiencies" in Metro and that the current oversight under the FTA is inadequate and will keep failing. The NTSB has undertaken 11 investigations over the last 33 years of Metrorail, and IMHO, things have been getting worse instead of better lately. The DOT is already "...exploring all options... ...including a range of approaches that will allow us to directly increase federal safety oversight of Metro," according to a spokesman for DOT head Foxx. One thing about being the commute option for many workers at DOT's headquarters is that if you screw up badly enough, often enough, you are bound to get 'higher ups' attention, and not in a good way!.
 
Eric S said:
Is it unusual that the recommendation would be for the FRA, rather than FTA, to take over?
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Yes, it is quite unusual that the NTSB is recommending that the FRA take a safety oversight role instead of the FTA. It is a slap of sorts at the FTA and indicates just how frustrated the NSTB board and staff is with the repeated investigations they have done of the Metro rail part of WMATA with the system maintenance and operation situation getting worse, not better.

The NTSB safety recommendation letter is available here: NTSB Makes Urgent Call for Direct Federal Safety Oversight of WMATA. What will the outcome be, I have no idea.
 
FRA oversight would be the blind leading the deaf, unfortunately. FRA oversight has a bad track record.

What needs to happen is the wholesale replacement of WMATA upper-management and middle-management employees (union or not). The culture went rotten -- it's become a culture of shirk, conceal, lie, and cover-your-ass. You can't fix that without firing large numbers of people. The board probably needs to be replaced first.
 
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Maybe it was mentioned in another thread, but the FTA has stepped in and is exercising safety oversight:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/federal-officials-will-assume-responsibility-for-metro-safety/2015/10/09/8fe4cae6-6eca-11e5-aa5b-f78a98956699_story.html

Metro now is the first U.S. subway system placed under direct federal supervision for safety lapses under a plan announced late Friday by Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.

Day-to-day operations would continue under the auspices of Metro, but Federal Transit Administration officials could intervene when safety concerns arise. Officials could conduct surprise inspections and issue directives to Metro to immediately address safety problems in the system.
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The fundamental problem is that "issuing directives" doesn't really do much when the culture has degenerated to the point where reports are routinely faked and whistleblowers are harassed and forced out.

The people to whom the directives are issued will say in public that they're complying, and then won't comply.

To fix this sort of rotten corporate culture, you have to actually have the power to fire people.

(P.S. This is also why democracy is useful. When the government culture goes rotten, you need to be able to fire them -- and if you aren't a democracy, you *can't*. I've started to believe that an ideal system would just leave people in office until people started demanding a recall election... it would preserve the primary feature of democracy, which is the ability to throw the bums out, while the good guys wouldn't have to be dialling for dollars all the time!)
 
I think that the idea is that the FTA people issuing the directives aren't going to sit in their offices and take WMATA's word for it that they've complied. It appears that they have the power to direct WMATA employees to take action immediately, while they're there to observe and ensure compliance. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.
 

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