On anniversary of tragic Metrorail crash, let's rededicate ourselves to transit safety

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Metrorail's Red Line crash of June 22, 2009. With nine people killed and 80 injured, it remains one of the darkest days I've experienced as Secretary of Transportation.

And, once more, my deepest sympathies go out to the families and loved ones of those killed and to those who were injured.

Memorial flowers on a bridge mark the site of the Red Line crash, photo courtesy Gerald Martineau, Washington Post

I have written many times that safety is DOT's number one priority when it comes to planes, trains and automobiles. But we don't have the authority to set safety standards for mass transit.

Last November, I blogged here that DOT should also be looking out for passengers who ride subways and light-rail. And since then, I have asked Congress to give our Federal Transit Administration that oversight.

Transit is one of our nation’s safest forms of transportation. But state and local budget constraints have combined with aging infrastructure to challenge that safety, and your federal government is expressly prohibited from protecting those passengers through oversight.

The WMATA crash of last June was not an isolated event. During the past year we've also seen transit accidents in Boston and San Francisco, Chicago and Salt Lake City.

That's why we want to be able to set some very good safety standards. And, if the transit agencies or states don't boost their efforts to meet those standards, we want some oversight. America's transit passengers deserve an agency that can step in when it needs to.

So far, we've had good meetings with several members of the Senate and the House to discuss our initiative, and those members have given us positive feedback.

Meanwhile, we’re doing all we can at DOT to address transit safety.

We are in the process of appointing individuals to serve on our newly formed Transit Rail Advisory Committee for Safety. Once Congress gives us the necessary authority, the committee will provide expert advice to guide our transit regulatory agenda.

We’re also reviewing about $300 million in proposed safety improvements for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. Within the next few weeks, we’ll make a determination on WMATA’s plans for using these funds.

Salt Lake City's Trax, photo courtesy Utah Transit Authority

Transit safety is not something we can afford to put off for another day. We owe it to the men, women, and children who take rail transit--and to the workers who make transit service possible--to ensure that transit agencies are held accountable for operating in the safest manner possible, every minute of every ride.

With more than 14 million people riding rail transit systems each day, it makes no sense that rail transit is the only transportation mode that operates without comprehensive federal safety regulation, oversight, or enforcement authority.

We are committed to doing everything in our power to ensure that public transportation is safe. And I know that Congress shares our commitment to passenger safety.

As we remember the tragic Metrorail crash of last June, let's honor the memory of those nine victims by working to ensure a safer future for rail transit riders across America.

Comments

[Michael E. Bailey]

We certainly do need higher safety standards and oversight of rail transit. There is no question about that. Many states have little or no oversight; andcity and county governments are not putting in the funding for rail transit safety when the budgets they are passing are so severe as to layoff police, sheriffs deputies, fire fighters and close fire stations. Federal standards and oversight are needed. In California, our Public Utilities Commission does have authority over rail transit and its construction and fares. And the funding for the Public Utilities Commission does not come from the state General Fund. But the Commissioners that need to decide on rail transit issues also have to decide on issues concerning ferry operators, moving companies, some privately owned transit companies, some water companies, power, gas, and phone companies. And proceeding can last up to a year or more before a decision is made. Federal oversight would be a help in making rail transit as safe as it can be. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.

[Marc Ebuna]

Mr. LaHood, I'm glad you made scant mention of the fact that 'state and local budget constraints have combined with aging infrastructure to challenge that safety', but I caution that you work with the FTA and future regulators to make sure that THIS (http://www.ebbc.org/rail/fra.html) does not happen to transit has it has to regional rail, necessitating time consuming waivers (http://www.cahsrblog.com/2010/05/caltrain-gets-its-fra-waiver/) to circumvent largely untested and unnecessary regulations provided by overburdened and misguided oversight. The last thing we want to see is even older trains because these transit agencies must appropriate most of their budget to acquire fewer custom-built cars for specific FTA safety regulations decades out of date from real-world tests and international standards.

Further, safety should merely be a benefit of modernizing America's aging and under-capacity transit systems, buckling from increasing ridership due to the influx of people moving to transit-accessible areas. Your championing of walkable, living communities should go hand-in-hand with improved transit in older cities, too. Let's strengthen the communities that prove these models of new urban living work - the rest of the nation will follow. If we allow them to languish, we'll have squandered the opportunities we've been handed for the past several years. I look forward to see where this goes.

[BC]

I would agree that we do need higher safety standards. We also need more money to fund these programs.