Metro News Release
For immediate release: July 13, 2009
Metro to act on the National Transportation Safety Board's urgent safety recommendation
Metro’s Board of Directors and General Manager appreciate the recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board to Metro and the Federal Transit Administration. This has implications that reach far beyond Metro, and extend to the entire transit industry.
In spite of the issuance of this recommendation, the NTSB still has not determined the root cause of the accident. Components of the circuit have been replaced and testing continues, but the problem still persists. This is not a simple problem as is evidenced by the NTSB’s statement that “investigators are continuing to examine the train control system circuitry and recorded data to better understand how the train control system functioned prior to the accident."
It is important to know that there are currently no systems available commercially that could provide the Metro system with the kind of alerts that the NTSB has recommended, and that such a system must be invented. San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit system for example, would not meet our unique needs. We believe the NTSB acknowledged this much in its letter today, stating, “The NTSB believes that software algorithms or additional circuitry could be developed to continuously evaluate the validity of real-time track occupancy data and alert operations personnel when problems are detected.” As a result, we will be developing a new system that will be specifically tailored to Metro. Metro is in the process of contacting vendors who have the expertise needed to help us develop this service, and we are preparing cost estimates on this application.
Metro is also pleased that NTSB has now agreed to allow us to move forward with our plan to initiate an independent panel of experts in signal systems through the American Public Transportation Association before the NTSB investigation has been completed.
The safety of our customers and our employees continues to be our prime concern. As a result of the accident of June 22, 2009, Metro immediately returned control of all trains to manual mode. Metro will continue to operate in manual mode until a suitable backup, designed specifically for our rail system is developed. For more than 30 years, the current rail system has operated without a failure like the one we experienced on June 22, but Metro will continue to devote all of its resources to implementing NTSB’s recommendation as soon as possible.
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Media contact for this news release: Steven Taubenkibel or Angela Gates at 202-962-1051.
For all other inquiries, please call customer service at 202-637-7000.
News release issued at 4:48 pm, July 13, 2009.