Senators to Metro: ‘Enough is enough’
Just a day after Metro’s board of directors gave the transit agency’s top management 10 days to explain why a defective section of rail was not repaired for more than a month, the region’s four U.S. senators are weighing in, demanding that the findings of the internal investigation be aired publicly at a board hearing.
Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D) and Ben Cardin (D) of Maryland and Sens. Mark Warner (D) and Tim Kaine (D) of Virginia made it clear that they are out of patience. Although no passengers were on the derailed train and no injuries were reported, the episode was another black eye for the transit agency.
“Enough is enough. How many more times do we have to express our anger, frustration and outrage?” they said in a statement. “This most recent incident is unacceptable and further demonstrates a pattern of neglect to physical infrastructure critical to the safety of those who ride Metro and those who work on it.”
The senators called for the Metro board to call an emergency meeting after the investigation is complete and urged board members to “micro-manage” any needed repair work, if needed.
Metro board officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On Wednesday, Metro officials revealed that they knew about but didn’t repair a defective section of track that was the site of an Aug. 6 derailment. No one was hurt in the incident because the train had not gone into service and had not taken on any passengers.
The announcement was only one in a series of embarrassing revelations that have come to light in the months following a fatal smoke incident in January, in which one passenger died and scores of others were sickened. The National Transportation Safety Board is currently conducting an investigation into that tragedy, but other federal probes have identified serious safety lapses at the nation’s second-busiest subway system, including a lack of safety training for front-line workers.
On Thursday, the NTSB said it is not investigating the most recent derailment but did release a statement on the matter.
“Although the NTSB has not opened a separate investigation into last week’s derailment, it does inform our ongoing investigation into the January L’Enfant Plaza WMATA accident,” wrote NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson. “Organizational culture and infrastructure are two of the issues that we’re looking at in L’Enfant investigation, and this recent derailment incident is another data point in each of those areas.”
