I guess it’s a good thing that the National Transportation Safety Board is based here in Washington, because the Metro system is giving investigators there a lot of work. The derailment of the Green Line train at Mount Vernon Square is just the latest incident to require the attention of the federal agency. In addition to all of the issues related to fares and the budget in general, one would have to assume that new general manager John B. Catoe will have to refocus the agency on safety issueswhen he comes on board at the end of this month.
It seems like this sort of thing is cyclical, that there are periods when bad things come in bunches. While the most recent incident is one of the worst in the agency’s history in terms of the number of people injured, at least no passengers have died recently. At a time when it’s being contemplated that fares will go up, the agency needs to assure passengers and potential riders that they can get from point A to point B safely. Right now that seems to be in doubt.
