Federal transportation investigators on Monday called on Metro to examine its train alert system continuously, instead of daily as it has done in the wake of the deadly June 22 crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board also made a second “urgent recommendation” to the Federal Transit Administration for all transit systems that have similar train control systems to ensure they have enough backup protection in their safety systems.
“While the NTSB is still in the very early stages of its investigation into this tragic accident here in our nation’s capital, we have concerns about the failure of [the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s] train control system to prevent this collision,” acting Chairman
Mark Rosenker said. He added that he wanted to make sure other agencies did not have “single-point failures,” as Metro did.
The NTSB asked Metro and the FTA to respond within 30 days to its recommendations. But Monday afternoon Metro issued a statement saying such demands would not be possible to do immediately.
“It is important to know that there are currently no systems available commercially that could provide the Metro system with the kind of alerts that the NTSB has recommended and that such a system must be invented,” Metro said. “San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit system, for example, would not meet our unique needs.”
The transit agency said it would try to develop a new system, tailored to its rail network. It said it was contacting outside companies to help and trying to determine what such a system would cost. “We will devote all of our resources to implementing NTSB’s recommendation as soon as possible,” Metro said.
The NTSB is still investigating the crash that killed nine people and injured more than 70 others on the Red Line last month. The preliminary investigation indicates that a sensor on the tracks failed to alert an approaching train, which was running automatically, that another train was stopped ahead on the tracks. The NTSB said for the first time Monday that the operator and the control center did not communicate before the crash.
The moving train plowed into the stopped train — despite the train operator’s attempt to brake — crumpling its front railcar to a third of its size.
Metro had replaced the piece of rail equipment that communicates such information to trains five days before the June 22 crash. But after it inspected older data in the wake of the accident, it found the equipment had been intermittently failing since it had been replaced.
