Feds funnel nearly $1M toward DC Metro safety efforts

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) plans to shift nearly $1 million toward safety efforts for Washington’s troubled Metrorail system.

{mosads}The FTA, which assumed temporary oversight of Metro last fall, said it will use $900,000 to train contractors to inspect, investigate and oversee the transit agency’s rail system.

The goal is to then transfer the FTA contractors’ expertise to an oversight body that local jurisdictions are currently working to establish by February 2017.

“As D.C., Maryland and Virginia work to stand up the Metrorail Safety Commission, they will need the right people in place with the knowledge, skill, and expertise to effectively oversee Metrorail safety on day one,” federal Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement.

“This action will give them immediate access to competent personnel who have already been on the ground inspecting safety at [Metro].”

The funding will come from a pot of money allocated for the new oversight body.

Acting FTA Administrator Carolyn Flowers said she pressed local jurisdictions earlier this summer about making individuals available for training, in an effort to ensure a smooth transition when the FTA hands over its authority to the Metrorail Safety Commission.

But Flowers said in a letter to local leaders: “We have not received any assurances from the jurisdictions that you intend to provide the requested resources.”

The announcement that the FTA would be training contractors for the oversight body comes in the wake of a damning report from the agency that found serious deficiencies in Metro’s track inspection program.

The FTA report also said Metro employees were not properly inspecting tracks prior to last month’s Silver Line derailment, which occurred near the East Falls Church station in Virginia on a section where trains cross over from one set of tracks to another.

The Metro Transit Police Department has opened its own investigation into the matter, the transit agency announced this week.