WASHINGTON — The Washington Metrorail Safety Commission released its latest railcar audit findings Tuesday, highlighting some glaring issues with following Metro’s own safety and procedural practices.
Three years after its first audit of the railcar program, the WMSC released the new audit, finding seven issues in the program for WMATA to address.
A spokesperson for the WMSC outlined them as:
- Metrorail is not carrying out railcar maintenance and inspection tasks as specified by its procedures.
- Metrorail is training personnel on outdated procedures.
- Metrorail is not meeting life-safety and occupational safety and health requirements in railcar maintenance facilities. These include requirements of Metrorail’s hot works program, fall protection requirements, and safe crane lifting practices.
- Metrorail is not identifying and mitigating hazards related to railcars and railcar personnel.
- Metrorail is not following its operational certification requirements for Car Maintenance Road Mechanics.
- Metrorail is not following industry standard electrostatic discharge protection practices for railcar components.
- Metrorail is using equipment that is not calibrated in accordance with its policies and procedures, including for inspection and maintenance of components with a direct impact on safety.
Along with that, the WMSC has offered three recommendations:
- Metrorail is not tracking the shelf life of railcar parts that decay over time and therefore have a limited shelf life.
- Metrorail could improve the effectiveness of its maintenance tasks by proactively providing training records to supervisors of employees newly assigned to their shifts or locations.
- Metrorail should update its railcar maintenance staffing assessment to account for current facilities, railcars, maintenance requirements, and other operational changes.
But the audit wasn’t all negative. The WMSC found Metro is making better use of data to improve safety in the system. It also found Metro has updated procedures to gauge when wheelsets show potential to have issues on the tracks.
“We are reviewing the WMSC’s report and will take appropriate action upon completion of our review," a Metro spokesperson told WUSA9 in response to the audit.
ATU Local 689, the primary union for Metrorail workers, responded to the review in a statement Tuesday night, saying:
"Safety is the number one priority for Local 689 and our members. We appreciate and share the concerns raised by the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission in the latest safety audit about the critical need to protect workers while they perform essential maintenance tasks to ensure railcars are safe for all passengers. This audit illustrates a long-lasting and unfortunate problem within WMATA regarding system-wide safety issues. As with the decision to raise the speed limit for railcars passing through track work-zones, WMATA has a habit of prioritizing system speed over safety. The Union calls on WMSC to redouble their oversight efforts to ensure that WMATA is safe for all."
Metro has 30 days to propose what are called Corrective Action Plans. These CAPs have to address each finding and respond to each recommendation.
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