One year ago, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) temporarily assumed direct safety oversight over the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Metrorail system. In that short time, FTA has provided more thorough safety oversight over WMATA than it has ever received.

While FTA does not run or operate the WMATA Metrorail system, we are identifying problems and guiding WMATA as they implement needed safety changes.  However, for all the safety improvements WMATA has made, it remains a long and difficult task to instill the strong safety culture that is required for true and lasting change.

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Every action taken by FTA and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) is focused on helping WMATA to comply with its own safety program and implement corrective actions to fix systemic safety issues.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has also appointed safety experts to the federal positions on the WMATA Board of Directors, bringing safety leadership to the highest level of the organization.

FTA is exercising its authority, and using enforcement tools that Congress has provided, to aid WMATA in addressing systemic safety deficiencies and building a strong safety culture. We have conducted inspections resulting in remedial actions, issued investigation reports with findings, and issued safety directives with required corrective actions. 

In keeping with our pledge to be transparent, these inspection reports can be found on the FTA WMATA Safety Oversight page.

A few examples of FTA-identified safety concerns where WMATA has made improvements include the Rail Operations Control Center  – where for the first time since 2012, all rail traffic controllers have completed annual certifications – and the Roadway Worker Protection (RWP) program, where nearly 2,000 employees with expired RWP Safety Training cards have been retrained and certified. 

In addition, FTA has worked with WMATA to ensure SafeTrack plans give first priority to track locations where urgent repairs are required to reduce the risk of smoke and fire events, and WMATA has corrected numerous instances of degraded fire and life safety equipment in tunnels that impact emergency passenger evacuations. 

FTA’s experienced safety oversight personnel also help identify significant issues and work collaboratively with WMATA to detect critical defects when conducting routine track maintenance oversight inspections.

While FTA is working to see that WMATA makes necessary safety improvements, WMATA needs to ensure it is properly managing and resourcing its corrective safety actions and building internal safety capacity and culture. 

The more WMATA addresses and resolves systemic safety issues, the more easily it can transition from reacting to daily incidents to implementing a truly preventative maintenance program.

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One strong sign WMATA is doing things differently in this regard is that under the new management team led by Paul Wiedefeld, the safety vs. service calculus has clearly shifted towards safety. Alongside the SafeTrack effort, millions of dollars in federal funding received by WMATA have been directed to use on safety-related infrastructure projects. 

FTA’s temporary safety oversight of WMATA’s Metrorail system is also focused on organizational safety issues and specific safety defects that arise from inspections, but does not extend to the WMATA employee disciplinary program. 

However, we are a strong proponent of the Safety Management System (SMS) approach where lines of safety decision-making accountability are established throughout the organization, from senior executives to frontline employees, to support the resolution of safety concerns and thus promote a proactive safety stance.

For the long-term, FTA encourages WMATA to be on the leading edge in implementing a new Transit Asset Management Federal Rule. Transit asset management is an essential and strategic practice for providing safer, more reliable transit service while helping lower operating costs and reducing travel delays for passengers. 

Under the rule, transit agencies nationwide, including WMATA, are required to inventory and assess the conditions of their assets, develop priorities for investment based on the inventory, and establish performance targets to keep assets in a state of good repair.

While FTA is fulfilling the short-term, immediate need for strong oversight with its temporary role as a state safety oversight agency, the three jurisdictions must quickly stand up an effective permanent state safety oversight agency.

Secretary Foxx has called on Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia to accelerate their creation of a new SSOA that can take responsibility for safety oversight of Metrorail as required by federal law. FTA is preparing for this transition to occur early in 2017. 

The timing is critical: the existing SSOA was officially declared ineffective earlier this year, triggering a one-year deadline (February 9, 2017) for the three jurisdictions to create a new SSOA – or risk millions in federal funding being withheld from transit agencies throughout each jurisdiction. 

The WMATA Metrorail system delivers tremendous benefits to the Washington, D.C. region and is vital to the area’s residents, businesses, and visitors, as well as to the federal government. All users of Metrorail deserve a reliable and safe system.

This is why FTA will continue to temporarily provide effective safety oversight, and help WMATA build on the improvements made in the last year, until the new safety oversight agency is capable of performing its oversight responsibilities. We are committed to working with WMATA and the new agency to ensure a safer, more reliable ride for WMATA customers throughout the National Capital Region.