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FTA rips WMATA operations


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The Washington Post has an article on the FTA report that says WMATA's rail control center is out of control. It also has a lot mandatory suggestions on their maintenance operations for both rail & bus.

The 116 page report is here: http://tinyurl.com/q4355jx

I wonder what a similar report on CTA operations would discover?

​I don't know what is happening internally at the control center. However, since this investigation was triggered by several accidents on Metro Rail, there was the stinging NTSB report on the Blue Line subway derailment and how the track inspectors didn't inspect track, and we are still waiting for the final report on the Blue Line runaway train.

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​I don't know what is happening internally at the control center. However, since this investigation was triggered by several accidents on Metro Rail, there was the stinging NTSB report on the Blue Line subway derailment and how the track inspectors didn't inspect track, and we are still waiting for the final report on the Blue Line runaway train.

​The report stated that the Rail Control Center [ROCC] employees were using their personal cellphones all the time & basically not paying attention to their jobs.

I glanced at most of it & only read parts of it, but it also criticized the lack of bus drivers pre-checks of their buses, due to the distance the buses were stored at the garages in far outlying lots, because WMATA didn't allot enough time for that, but required them to have the buses on the street within too short of a time.

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​The report stated that the Rail Control Center [ROCC] employees were using their personal cellphones all the time & basically not paying attention to their jobs.

I glanced at most of it & only read parts of it, but it also criticized the lack of bus drivers pre-checks of their buses, due to the distance the buses were stored at the garages in far outlying lots, because WMATA didn't allot enough time for that, but required them to have the buses on the street within too short of a time.

​It sure sounds like WMATA simply could not figure out how to run a large rail operation. New York had similar issues in the 1980's when everything was "cut, cut, cut" and the people who were left started doing things in the easiest way possible, not the right way. There was at least one derailment where it later came out that instead of walking their section of track on foot, the track inspectors decided to simply ride a train from one end of their section to the other and call it a job well done - no defects found. After that episode, there were people fired for incompetence and unwillingness to do their jobs and things got a lot better. Of course, getting rid of the graffiti on the trains didn't hurt either. If what you are working looks like junk, you tend to treat it like junk.

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...There was at least one derailment where it later came out that instead of walking their section of track on foot, the track inspectors decided to simply ride a train from one end of their section to the other and call it a job well done - no defects found. After that episode, there were people fired for incompetence and unwillingness to do their jobs...

​Doesn't that sound a lot like the CTA incident I mentioned above?

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​I don't know what is happening internally at the control center. However, since this investigation was triggered by several accidents on Metro Rail, there was the stinging NTSB report on the Blue Line subway derailment and how the track inspectors didn't inspect track, and we are still waiting for the final report on the Blue Line runaway train.

​I remember seeing that incident about The Blue Line a few years ago what happened on The Blue Line sounds just about identical to what happened on WMATA's Yellow Line, in addition Yellow may not be a good line to ride at this moment because of that incident and Yellow Line service is suspended here.

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​I remember seeing that incident about The Blue Line a few years ago what happened on The Blue Line sounds just about identical to what happened on WMATA's Yellow Line, in addition Yellow may not be a good line to ride at this moment because of that incident and Yellow Line service is suspended here.

​Maybe you can fill us in on the WMATA incident.

The NTSB report on the CTA Blue Line subway derailment is here. As indicated in the embedded pdf, one of the issues was that the inspectors couldn't hit the tracks until 9 a.m., rode the train back to the Thompson Center for lunch at noon, and then basically worked only until 2:45.  Various other things were criticized, including missing inspection reports, the condition of the fasteners and ties (not really addressed until an ARRA project around 2010), evacuation after the tunnel filled with smoke, and overall supervision, including a bad safety culture.

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​It sure sounds like WMATA simply could not figure out how to run a large rail operation. New York had similar issues in the 1980's when everything was "cut, cut, cut" and the people who were left started doing things in the easiest way possible, not the right way. There was at least one derailment where it later came out that instead of walking their section of track on foot, the track inspectors decided to simply ride a train from one end of their section to the other and call it a job well done - no defects found. After that episode, there were people fired for incompetence and unwillingness to do their jobs and things got a lot better. Of course, getting rid of the graffiti on the trains didn't hurt either. If what you are working looks like junk, you tend to treat it like junk.

​Yes, the WMATA track inspectors poor work quality was also mentioned in the FTA report.

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It sure sounds like WMATA simply could not figure out how to run a large rail operation. New York had similar issues in the 1980's when everything was "cut, cut, cut" and the people who were left started doing things in the easiest way possible, not the right way. There was at least one derailment where it later came out that instead of walking their section of track on foot, the track inspectors decided to simply ride a train from one end of their section to the other and call it a job well done - no defects found. After that episode, there were people fired for incompetence and unwillingness to do their jobs and things got a lot better. Of course, getting rid of the graffiti on the trains didn't hurt either. If what you are working looks like junk, you tend to treat it like junk.

They probably won't ever be able to, at least until funding is either safe from constant cuts and/or finally decided upon by its 3+ governing bodies. It also doesn't help to have a Congress that is seemingly slightly unfavorable towards transit (although some exceptions could be made). Speaking of, the NTSB released their, if I remember correctly, 116-page report on WMATA and have issued around 13 corrective measures for bus and some 70-78 for rail. Sheesh.

Edited by NewFlyerMCI
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Maybe you can fill us in on the WMATA incident.

The NTSB report on the CTA Blue Line subway derailment is here. As indicated in the embedded pdf, one of the issues was that the inspectors couldn't hit the tracks until 9 a.m., rode the train back to the Thompson Center for lunch at noon, and then basically worked only until 2:45.  Various other things were criticized, including missing inspection reports, the condition of the fasteners and ties (not really addressed until an ARRA project around 2010), evacuation after the tunnel filled with smoke, and overall supervision, including a bad safety culture.

Is there a report for that incident for WMATA? I just made an observation and before I further comment on how identical they are. I will agree that there should've been better lines of communication on both sides between Control and the operator of that Blue Line train, There should've been more inspections to track conditions if there were inspections they should've been more thorough and they should've checked the ventilation system prior to this event. Based on what was reported on WMATA the same can be said for right now.

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