Metro mechanics, engineers and technicians do not keep organized records or follow a set of safety guidelines when maintaining, inspecting and rebuilding rail cars, contributing to dangerous mishaps such as the separation of two trains last year, according to a new audit.
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The Washington Metrorail Safety Commission, an agency that Congress created to monitor Metrorail safety, released a 44-page audit Tuesday analyzing Metro’s rail car maintenance practices. The audit, which included a closer look at the transit agency’s troubled and indefinitely suspended 6000 series of cars, pinpointed 12 problem areas and ordered Metro to submit corrective action plans for each in 30 days.
The audit, conducted this year, reviewed Metro’s inspection, maintenance and engineering processes, as well as how it trains employees to work on cars. Safety commission officials said their analysis was based on employee interviews and reviews of Metro records and data.
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The Washington Post reached out to Metro for comment on Tuesday morning, and will update this story with any response.
The most serious findings involved how Metro had rehabilitated and overhauled its 6000 Series rail cars. Built nearly 20 years ago, the 6000 Series is Metro’s sixth model of rail cars and went through a restoration and rehabilitation process a few years ago — as most of Metro’s rail cars do — when they had reached their midway point of their service lives of about 40 years.
Safety inspectors said the restoration included use of the wrong-sized parts on some cars, while others had parts improperly torqued in their couplers, which connect rail cars together. Inspectors have said the repairs contributed to Red line rail car separations on Oct. 9 and Nov. 24, both of which caused major delays but no significant injuries. Metro and safety commission investigations have also linked the separation of a 6000 Series train in 2018 near the McLean station to the restoration process.
Metro’s 6000 series rail cars remain sidelined after safety incidents
“Metrorail did not follow its safety certification processes for the 6000-Series rehabilitation and overhaul project,” the audit said. All 184 6000 Series trains were grounded in November after the last separation because of the pull-aparts and discoveries of loose parts on multiple trains. They made up about 15 percent of Metro’s fleet.
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Despite Metro’s awareness of the missteps it took overhauling the rail cars, the audit claims the transit agency is developing a similar rehabilitation project for the 7000 Series cars, which make up the majority of Metro’s rail car stock, “but is doing so without the full coordination with its Safety Department.”
The audit said Metro is not requiring or receiving all the necessary parts and tools from original equipment manufacturers, does not have an organized system of keeping records that document work orders before starting rail car maintenance job projects and lacks a systematic way to make sure mechanics and engineers are trained for the specific tasks they are assigned.
Metro is behind on training and safety protocols, audit says
Responsibilities among Metro’s chief mechanical officer, its incident investigation team and its workers who probe unusual occurrences conflict and are not clearly defined, affecting important investigations, the safety commission report said.
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The audit also said Metro doesn’t have audio and video recorders in rail-car operating compartments that the National Transportation Safety Board recommends, and it doesn’t have a standard process to address when significant vibrations or bouncing occurs during rides that can damage track and rail cars. The 7000 Series cars, which were custom designed and built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries Rolling Stock Co. of Japan, cost about $2 million each. Metro has 748 of them.
The audit did also list several things Metro is doing right, including running a mentor and technical skills program, improving collaboration between engineers and mechanics, boosting cooperation and coordination between departments in planning for the development of Metro’s next model series of trains and incorporating more than 600 lessons learned from the 7000 Series trains into its plans for the yet-to-be-built 8000 Series trains. Metro also keeps consistent minutes of meetings of its safety committee, regularly produces and distributes rail-car reliability reports, relies on checklists for facility inspections. Employees interviewed expressed the importance of safety in their work, auditors said.