Reclassifying the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) as a commuter railroad would subject the transit authority and managers to tougher regulations. They suggested shifting this oversight from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), which focuses entirely on railroads and has the bulk of rail experts and inspectors, the NTSB told area congressional delegations serviced by WMATA during a Wednesday conference call.
An arcane 1965 law prohibiting federal regulation of subways has long prevented the federal regulation of subways, preventing them from being able to enact public safety policies and causing endless, unnecessary headaches in the process. In 2012, Congress gave broader authority for oversight of subway and light rail systems to the FTA, strengthening state safety organizations that had monitored those systems.
“Central Planning”
The DC Metro is an interstate railway, between the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. Amtrak is also an interstate railway, but unlike the Metro having the oversight of the FTA, they are regulated by the FRA. Centralizing all railroad oversight to the FRA, the NTSB argues, would have prevented incidents like the August 6 Green Line derailment because the FRA requirements on track gauge would have forced a track shutdown as soon as it was identified. Resumption of service would not happen until a person designated by the FRA determined the problem was fixed. Metro officials are left to their own without FRA oversight as it stands now.
Under the current safety oversight structure, the [Tri-State Oversight Committee] does not have the authority to levy penalties or stop Metrorail revenue service for a track gage problem such as the one that existed for 27 days near the Smithsonian station and resulted in the derailment. Further, the only FTA enforcement action allowed…is withholding funds or directing funds to correct safety conditions,” the NTSB letter says.”
The states’ rail safety oversight agency, the Tri-state Oversight Committee, is ineffective and suffers from a lack of resources according to the NTSB’s report. Shifting responsibility to the FRA would cut out all of the confusion caused by the phalanx of confusing bureaucracy created by state borders. it would also subject the Metrorail management to stricter federal rules.
