Feds to conduct safety inspection of DC Metro

The Department of Transportation is conducting a “safety management inspection” of the Washington, D.C. Metrorail subway system after a recent deadly smoke incident on the capital area transit network. 

A passenger was killed when a train heading toward Northern Virginia on Jan. 12 was halted in a tunnel between stations because of an electrical issue, trapping passengers underground in smoke-filled cars.

The DOT’s Federal Transit Administration said Wednesday that it is conducting a system-wide assessment of the safety of Metro’s trains and buses in the wake of the fatal smoke incident. 

{mosads}“The purpose of the inspection is to help WMATA assess the strengths and weaknesses of the safety of operations and identify areas where the agency can further reduce risks and make other safety improvements,” the agency said in a statement.

“This is the second time FTA has undertaken a comprehensive evaluation of a transit agency’s safety operations utilizing its new safety regulatory authority established by the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21),” the transportation department continued. 

The January smoke incident resulted in Metro’s first passenger fatality since a high-profile crash on the Red Line in 2009 that killed nine people and led to widespread changes at the capital-area transit agency.

Metro and Washington, D.C. officials have been criticized for allowing such a long gap before emergency responders could reach passengers stuck on the smoke-filled train. 

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said Wednesday that the Obama administration has a vested interested in making sure the Metro system was safe.

“Safety is a shared responsibility and our goal is to ensure that WMATA is living up to the expectation of the FTA and, perhaps most importantly, the expectations of the public,” Foxx said in a statement. “We will be vigilant and thorough in our safety inspection of WMATA and instruct the agency on how to close any gaps that we find.” 

Metro Board Chairman Mort Downey said the agency would fully cooperate with the federal regulators, as it has with investigators who are reviewing the circumstances that led to the January smoke incident. 

“The Federal Transit Administration has an important role in transit safety under their expanded statutory authority, and we welcome their participation as all of us—board, management, employees and other stakeholders — work to make Metro an even safer system,” Downs said in a statement. “A similar collaborative review with FTA in 2012 helped to document WMATA’s considerable progress in strengthening our safety capabilities, and suggested areas of continued effort that we have followed through on since that time.”

The Transportation Department said its safety inspection will begin on March 2, and include a three-part analysis of Metro’s rail, bus and overall safety culture.