WASHINGTON D.C., DC — The Washington Metro Safety Commission issued a scathing report Tuesday on ongoing safety issues at WMATA.
During a Washington Metrorail Safety Commission (WMSC) commissioners meeting Tuesday afternoon, the regulatory agency said it found instances where WMATA put trains into service with rail cars that did not meet WMATA’s own safety standards. Then allowing those trains to remain in service “bypassing WMATA’s wholistic safety process.”
Investigators also said WMATA violated its own safety guidelines by issuing level 4 track clearance to workers who did not meet Metrorail’s own written requirement for that clearance.
WMSC said WMATA has been “Ignoring” its own safety procedures during multiple train overruns in November and that WMATA allowed service to continue at two Metrorail stations where smoke was reported without knowing where the smoke was coming from.
“Are these types of activities allowed under the public transportation safety plan that we are about to approve?” WMSC Commissioner Robert Lauby asked WSMC Deputy CEO and COO Sharmila Samarasinghe.
“No, they are not,” Samarasinghe answered.
WMSC is the regulatory agency that’s supposed to make sure WMATA is doing what it needs to do to keep passengers and its own employees safe. There has been contentious back and forth between the two sides in the past.
WUSA9 reached out to WMATA for a response but has yet to hear back.
WMSC said some of the issues they found, especially with the train overruns, have yet to be properly addressed by Metro.