Sen. Barbara Mikulski is demanding that Metro’s board of directors show how it is improving safety and reliability at the transit system, her second call for accountability from the agency in as many months.
The senior Maryland senator wrote a letter to the board on Monday seeking information about how it is implementing federal safety recommendations, measuring the performance of Metro management and improving the reliability of trains and buses.
“The residents of the National Capital region are tired of government not doing its job,” the Democrat wrote. “I hear from my constituents about their daily frustrations with Metro: inoperable escalators and elevators; closed entrances and exits; train delays; and communication problems with riders during train breakdowns.”
Last month, she slammed the transit agency in congressional testimony, calling for “more rigorous management.” She said the agency had been paying “lip service” to riders’ concerns about safety since the deadly June 22 train crash. The next day Metro General Manager John Catoe shook up his executive leadership team, removing six people from top management positions through reassignments, firings, and retirements.
Mikulski stayed mum about the shake-up at the time, but this week’s letter made it clear she still wants answers.
Mikulski stayed mum about the shake-up at the time, but this week’s letter made it clear she still wants answers.
She had helped push for $150 million in federal funding for Metro, which was signed into law by President Obama last month. But now that the agency has the money, she wrote, “it is important that Congress be informed of the steps be taken to improve Metro’s safety and operational reliability following the deadly crash in June.”
Metro’s board of directors was drafting a response on Thursday.
Her letter was written before a report was released Wednesday detailing further safety problems. An independent safety oversight team said it was nearly hit by a speeding train while investigating Metro’s track safety practices last month. The group said it found multiple failings in the agency’s safety procedures during the publicized inspections, ranging from trains not slowing down for track workers to the workers using incorrect hand signals to communicate with train operators. Such safety protocols became a cause of greater concern after two workers were killed on the tracks in separate accidents this year.
Mikulski called the findings “outrageous.”
“It shows again that safety and accountability are not yet priorities at Metro,” she said. “It is another example of why greater oversight of Metro is needed. That’s why this year I am fighting for new federal safety standards to hold Metro accountable.”
