Steve Burns
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – (WMAL) The National Transportation Safety Board Tuesday addressed a litany of problems it says led up to the L’Enfant smoke incident in January 2015 that killed one person and injured 90 others.
Among them, investigators said the electrical arcing was caused by a “prolonged short circuit that consumed power system components.” The ineffective safety practices of WMATA were also cited as a cause, along with ineffective oversight. That oversight has become a point of contention among several federal agencies.
NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart reiterated an earlier recommendation that WMATA be overseen by the Federal Railroad Administration. Currently, the Federal Transit Administration has oversight duties.
“Despite new authorities, the FTA remained, and remains, averse to crafting and enforcing safety regulations and minimum requirements among operations, track and equipment, and signal and train control systems,” Hart said. “The FTA continues to rely on state safety oversight agencies and local transit systems to create their own rules and to determine what constitutes effective inspection and enforcement.”
The NTSB made clear WMATA, under the FTA, is free to set its own safety goals, or move the goalposts should those goals not be met. The FRA, Hart said, has more authority, and many of their recommendations following the L’Enfant incident would not have been necessary had WMATA been under its oversight.
“WMATA needs a regulatory structure with rules, inspection, and enforcement. FRA can provide all three,” he said
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx made the decision to revert authority to the FTA last October, ignoring the NTSB’s recommendation. Only Congress can make further changes.
“The Federal Railroad Administration has the capability to make regulations, inspect to make sure those regulations are being followed, and enforce to make sure those regulations are being followed,” Hart said. “FTA does not have those authorities.”
Unlike the FTA, the FRA has the ability to fine a transit system for noncompliance, though Foxx has stated the FTA can fine WMATA in the form of withholding funding. The FRA currently investigates accidents on commuter railroads, but it also oversees a similar multi-jurisdictional subway, the PATH train between New Jersey and New York City.
Federal oversight of WMATA is expected to be temporary. The FTA is waiting on legislators in Maryland, D.C., and Virginia to develop a new safety oversight committee.
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