How has Metro responded to NTSB recommendations?

TransitBy Matt Johnson (Editorial Board Alum) October 22, 2009

Investigators near Fort Totten. Photo by the author.

WMATA has had a few rough months with worker deaths and bus-pedestrian collisions, and with the June 22 Metro accident still fresh in our minds, the agency has come under fire for its safety record. Dave Stroup recently wrote the second installment in his “Price of Safety” series looking at WMATA’s safety culture. Some of the comments there wondered about WMATA’s track record in terms of NTSB recomendations.

The goal of the National Transportation Safety Board is to improve safety in our transportation system. Sometimes issues stretch beyond the agency where an accident occured. When this happens, they often issue recomendations to all the applicable agencies. A crash in Chicago in January 1976, over two months before Metro opened, resulted in a set of recomendations to WMATA (issued in August 1976, after the system had opened). WMATA and other agencies were responsible for responding to NTSB by either complying or giving reasons why they would not do so.

Since 1970, the NTSB has issued 81 recommendations to WMATA. The vast majority of the closed recommendations are considered to be acceptable responses by NTSB. The 81 recommendations are associated with 11 events, but only 7 events took place on WMATA’s rail system.

Of the 81 recommendations:

Let’s take a look at the 7 events which happened on the WMATA system, totaling 73 recommendations.

Smithsonian Derailment, 1/13/1982

This accident claimed 3 lives and destroyed one railcar at the interlocking (crossover) between Smithsonian and Federal Triangle. To date, this accident resulted in the most NTSB recommendations to WMATA - 34. Of those recommendations, 30 are considered acceptably closed by the NTSB. The four that were closed unacceptably by WMATA are:

CSX Derailments in Takoma Park and Silver Spring, 6/19/1987, 9/5/1987, 9/17/1987

A series of right-of-way incursions due to freight railcar derailments in 1987 resulted in 3 recommendations by the NTSB. In two of the cases, freight trains derailed into the WMATA right-of-way. The third case was caused when vandals parked a backhoe on the CSX tracks. When struck, the backhoe violated WMATA’s right-of-way, causing damage to a parked Metro train. Systems designed to stop trains functioned properly, but WMATA sought additional safety systems. Of the three recommendations to both CSX and WMATA, 2 were closed acceptably. A third was close with an unacceptable action by WMATA and CSX.

Shady Grove Collision, 1/6/1996

On a snowy night in January, a Red Line train overshot the platform at Shady Grove and crashed into a parked train north of the station, killing the operator of the striking train. After the collision, the NTSB sent WMATA 20 recommendations. All but one of these recommendations are classified as “Closed-Acceptable Action.” The other was superseded by a later recommendation.

Woodley Park Collision, 11/3/2004

This collision occurred when an out-of-service train rolled backwards into Woodley Park from the direction of Cleveland Park, crashing into a Red Line train servicing the platform. Luckily there were no deaths. The NTSB issued three recommendations, one of which is currently open. Another is closed with “Acceptable Action.” WMATA failed to satisfy NTSB recommendations on the final recommendation.

Mount Vernon Square Derailment, 1/7/2007

In this derailment, a Green Line train derailed on the crossover immediately south of Mount Vernon Square during single-tracking. Currently, the six NTSB recommendations issued in the wake of this derailment are all still open. Two are considered to be open with “Unacceptable Action.” Recommendation R-07-027 was for better lubrication practices, especially during single-tracking operations. WMATA’s response to NTSB was not considered to be a strong enough action. The other recommendation which NTSB is not satisfied is being accomplished properly is their admonishment to add guard rails at all interlockings with a certain sharp-radius turn. NTSB feels that WMATA’s efforts are not moving quickly enough.

Striking of wayside workers at Dupont Circle and Eisenhower Avenue

The four recommendations from these incidents are currently all regarded as “Open-Acceptable Action.”

Fort Totten Collision, 6/22/2009

So far, NTSB has issued three urgent recommendations to WMATA. All are “Open-Await Response.” NTSB’s report on the incident will likely not be complete before summer 2010. It is very likely that more recommendations will be issued at that time.

A full list of WMATA’s NTSB recommendations can be found by searching for “Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority” in the “Addressee” field at NTSB’s Safety Recommendation Query page.

While these nunbers indicate that WMATA is very good at responding to NTSB criticisms, that does not necessarily indicate the presence of a “safety culture.” In fact, in some cases, the sheer volume of recommendations could indicate that the agency had left quite a bit to be desired in terms of fixes. In the cases where NTSB considers WMATA’s actions to be insufficient, some problem resolutions that are expensive or complex, but still important seem to have fallen by the wayside.

Of course, WMATA can only do so much with limited resources. NTSB is not responsible for locating funding for necessary fixes, and their recommendations often place a large burden on the agency. One of the unfulfilled recommendations issued by NTSB called for the retirement of the 1000-series railcars as soon as possible. But pulling almost one-third of the fleet is not something any transit agency can do without major repercussions to service and reliability. As I pointed out shortly after the June 2009 crash, the recommendations from NTSB to retire the 1000 series came in March 2006. Even if Metro had ordered railcars on the day of the recommendation, they would still be being produced. In fact, it is likely that even if cars had been ordered on the day of the Woodley Park crash in 2004, they’d still be in production.

It is clear that WMATA still needs to work on safety. And it is very likely that the accidents that have happened over the past several months will spur some improvement. Metro’s record shows a good history of responding favorably to NTSB. But for a true safety culture to develop, WMATA needs to be able to anticipate potential problems and address them before accidents occur.