Metro Orders Additional Actions Amid NTSB Investigation
Metro Deputy General Manager Rob Troup announced April 23 that he has ordered four additional early-action safety items in response to the Jan. 12 incident that occurred in a tunnel near L’Enfant Plaza Station earlier this year.
The additional safety measures were identified as part of Metro’s collaborative review with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation team, but are not to be misconstrued as formal recommendations from the NTSB.
Troup reported on the new safety actions during the Metro Board of Directors Safety and Security Committee meeting and said that these actions will be taken using existing budget resources.
“As our work with the NTSB investigation team continues, I have concluded that additional actions can and will be taken to improve safety for our rail passengers, employees and first responders,” said Troup. “While we remain committed to taking any actions recommended by the NTSB in their final investigation report, we are not waiting to make safety improvements where we see opportunities.”
The four safety improvements Troup ordered are:
- Initiating a multiyear maintenance program to replace or rehabilitate all 88,044 lights in Metro tunnels beginning next month.
- Creating a dedicated maintenance crew to continuously clear tunnel passageways of debris, equipment or other potential obstructions across Metro's 100 miles of tunnel segments.
- Beginning this summer, review protocols of the alarms in the Rail Operations Control Center (ROCC) with the goal of separating critical alarms from non-critical notifications.
- Establishing a quality audit process for ventilation system testing to ensure compliance with established maintenance and testing practices.
Intended to improve emergency response and the system’s state of good repair, these four items follow the completion of ten early-action safety items directed by Troup shortly after the Jan. 12, incident.
The NTSB investigation remains ongoing and has not yet determined the cause or identified findings of the incident.
