In 2022, the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission (WMSC) identified areas of safety progress that Metrorail has made under the WMSC’s oversight, but also identified and communicated new or recurring Metrorail safety issues that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is required to correct. Since assuming safety oversight of the Metrorail system in March 2019, the WMSC has worked with WMATA to ensure Metrorail’s development and implementation of corrective action plans and other safety improvements.

As the state oversight agency (SSOA) for the Metrorail system, the WMSC carried out its important work through a robust safety oversight program that includes audits, inspections, safety event investigations, Corrective Action Plans (CAP) oversight, safety certification oversight, and emergency management oversight.

This report provides an overview of the WMSC’s programs, operations, and finances in calendar year 2022. Additional detail is also available in the WMSC’s separate Annual Report on the Safety of the WMATA Rail System in 2022.

The WMSC conducts oversight to ensure that WMATA fulfills its responsibilities to carry out its safety commitments and to continuously improve the safety of the Metrorail system for riders, workers and all others who depend on the system’s maintenance and operations. The WMSC carries out this work by focusing on facts and data gathered from Metrorail systems and personnel at all levels of the Metrorail organization. These frequent interactions continue the rapport WMSC personnel have built with frontline personnel, supervisors and managers.

Some of the WMSC’s most notable work in 2022 included:

• Ongoing oversight of Metrorail’s 7000 Series return to service plans to ensure that Metrorail carried out its requirements and developed and implemented plans safely, following a data-driven approach.

• Overseeing Metrorail’s completion of the safety certification steps required to identify and mitigate hazards to provide for a safe opening of Silver Line Phase 2. The WMSC’s work identified hazards that Metrorail had not, ensured Metrorail developed plans to mitigate those hazards, and ensured that those hazards were mitigated before the extension opened for passenger service.

• Issuing orders regarding Metrorail’s improper power restoration (prompted by investigations, inspections, corrective action plan oversight, and other oversight activities) and regarding Metrorail’s ineffective and insufficient Automatic Train Control Room inspection, maintenance and cleaning program (prompted by inspections, corrective action plan oversight and other oversight activities) to ensure that Metrorail carries out and appropriately establishes its safety commitments.

• Completing five in-depth audit reports, including completion of the WMSC’s first three-year cycle of audits covering all elements of Metrorail’s Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan (PTASP). Among other findings, the reports issued in 2022 identified that elements of Metrorail have a culture that accepts noncompliance with written operational rules, instructions, and manuals, that Metrorail was not meeting its safety training and certification requirements, that Metrorail was not meeting emergency management requirements, and that Metrorail was not taking other steps necessary for the safety of riders, workers and first responders. The audits also identified positive practices. For example, the first report of the new triennial cycle, the Audit of Track Maintenance and Training, identified that Metrorail had implemented and sustained corrective actions to address most findings from the previous Track Audit issued in February 2020.

♦ The other reports issued in 2022 were:

⇒ Audit of Emergency Management and Fire and Life Safety Programs

⇒ Audit of Rail Operations

⇒ Audit of Station Maintenance, Elevators and Escalators

⇒ Audit of Communications Systems

• Conducting safety event investigations and adopting safety event investigation reports that provide for Metrorail to take actions to reduce the risk of recurrence. The WMSC adopted and published 55 final safety event investigation reports in 2022, and progressed work on other investigations into events that occurred in 2022. This included a July 30, 2022, Red Line smoke event where Metrorail utilized a train with passengers on board for a track inspection, where Metrorail did not identify the location of the smoke, and where Metrorail struggled to de-energize power cables, extending electrical arcing. Other events included roadway worker protection (RWP) safety issues such as train operators operating at excessive speeds past workers on the roadway, creating near misses of collisions. Metrorail is developing improvements to its RWP program.

• Extensive participation in the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation into the October 12, 2021, Blue Line train derailment between Rosslyn and Arlington Cemetery stations.

• Providing oversight of Metrorail’s revision to its Public Transportation Agency Safety Plan (PTASP), including updates to reflect improvements such as a joint labor-management safety committee.

The WMSC’s work continued into 2023 on several areas, including oversight of Metrorail’s 7000 Series return to service plan, of Metrorail’s actions related to third rail power and train control rooms, of Metrorail training practices, and of Metrorail’s safety certification of projects such as the Potomac Yard Station and the potential initiation of Automatic Train Operation, which Metrorail has generally not used since 2009. Metrorail’s safety certification process requires Metrorail to identify and mitigate hazards to provide for the highest practicable level of safety before introducing a new asset or system into service.

Fiscally, the WMSC continued in 2022 to increase expertise and capacity in a targeted and responsible fashion. The WMSC completed Fiscal Year 2022 within budget of $5,062,000 and developed the Fiscal Year 2023 budget of $5,975,000 in accordance with the jurisdictional funding agreement among the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. The WMSC’s budget incorporates federal grants and local funds, making funding from the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and federal grants critical to the WMSC’s important work overseeing Metrorail safety. This investment allows the WMSC to function as an effective independent oversight agency. The WMSC’s 2022 annual independent financial statement audit included an unmodified or “clean" audit opinion, which demonstrates the WMSC is using these funds responsibly.