DC Metro officials this week confirmed that the final draft of their ‘SafeTrack’ repair plan is going to be delayed as metro officials continue to work with the Federal Transit Administration to meet safety guidelines.
Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld announced initial draft of the huge repair plan on May 6, and promised the final draft yesterday.
A track explosion two weeks ago prompted FTA to step in and stop Metro’s plans to release the final draft.
FTA issued a set of actions to Metro on May 7 and warned that they had to take the actions immediately or risk a full system shutdown for safety reasons. FTA has blasted Metro publicly for failing to have enough workers trained on emergency response, running too many trains in service at one time and not doing enough daily safety inspections.
The FTA order also addressed major employee negligence issues, such as train operators running red lights and running trains too fast. New speed restrictions are now in place and are slowing daily commutes for thousands of passengers.
The SafeTrack program proposes to repair the entire Metro system over a year with single tracking, line closures and reduced service hours on all lines.
As Virginia railroad injury attorneys, we find it alarming that so many safety failures have crippled the DC Metro system. We remember a few years ago when two DC Metro trains slammed into each other, killing four people. There also have been multiple fires on Metro lines and several explosions over the last three years.
We hope that those who have been injured by DC Metro during these multiple safety failures are able to recover from their injuries. Our railroad injury law firm has helped victims of many train accidents, and we know that small safety errors can lead to deadly results.