WASHINGTON — A Maryland congressman says Metro is lucky no one was hurt or killed by last week’s train derailment and that more federal oversight might be needed. Meanwhile riders have mixed reactions to the transit system’s safety record.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen tells WTOP that the Aug. 6 Metro derailment outside the Smithsonian Station is a “situation of gross negligence,” and calls Metro’s inaction dangerous
Metro’s interim general manager Jack Requa said Tuesday that the derailment could have been avoided had Metro repaired a section of track that had spread apart when the problem was first identified in July. Requa said such track damage is the result of decades of deferred upkeep and repairs.
“It was just a stroke of luck that the train that derailed did not have passengers on it.” Van Hollen says. “You have a real possibility people would have been hurt or killed over a defect that Metro knew about.”
Van Hollen brought up January’s electrical smoke that filled a Metro train killing one rider and sending dozens of others to the hospital.
“This is a troubling pattern,” says Van Hollen, calling it, “another situation where Metro had knowledge of the situation and didn’t act.”
Van Hollen says Metro’s priority should be finding a permanent general manager.
“Right now there’s nobody at the top, there’s nobody in charge. We need to make sure that the counties in the Metro system stop debating what the quality criteria should be for the new manager and bring somebody on.”
According to Van Hollen, the Federal Transit Administration should be more involved in enforcing safety standards. He says there’s a set of federal safety standards for rail cars, but none for signaling, track equipment and inspection programs.
And he says there’s been talk in the U.S. Senate about increased federal oversight of Metro safety procedures.
“If they’re not going to be putting these standards in place and applying them, then we’re going to have to even more federal oversight.”
For commuters that rely on Metro, service disruptions like the Orange Line derailment are concerning, but not a deterrent.
“I’m going to be using Metro on a day-to-day basis because I am not driving downtown,” says Metro rider Gail Clark, of Falls Church. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t have concerns.”
Some riders aren’t expecting any big changes, despite what people like Van Hollen and Requa have been saying.
“I don’t think that anything is going to change,” says passenger Kelly Ort, of Alexandria. “Hasn’t changed yet, why would it change now?”
Rider Jack D’Andrea, of Charlotte, North Carolina, says the apparently avoidable derailment was unexpected. “As a rider it shocks me, but as someone with a rail background, it also shocks me,” he says.
WTOP’s Dennis Foley contributed to this report.
