Automatic train operation won’t return to Metro anytime soon

[davinp]

It is likely to be years before Metro resumes automatic train operation, which was faulted in the deadly 2009 Red Line crash, because the transit agency is not confident that it is safe, officials said Thursday.

Meantime, Metro leadership is looking at offering bonuses and other perks to rail traffic controllers who they say are suffering from the intense stress of jobs that, for decades, were performed by computers.

Chief Operations Officer Joseph Leader said he is awaiting the results of a third-party study due by the end of the year on whether it would be safe to bring back ATO, as the technology is called, which was suspended from use after the Fort Totten crash, in which eight passengers and a train operator died.

Leader said he and Metro’s chief safety officer, Patrick Lavin, are not confident that the software system existing on Metro since it opened 40 years ago comports with current-day procedures and requirements to protect the safety of maintenance workers and inspectors out on the tracks during service hours.

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[srepetsk]

It is likely to be years before Metro resumes automatic train operation, which was faulted in the deadly 2009 Red Line crash, because the transit agency is not confident that it is safe, officials said Thursday.

Meantime, Metro leadership is looking at offering bonuses and other perks to rail traffic controllers who they say are suffering from the intense stress of jobs that, for decades, were performed by computers.

Chief Operations Officer Joseph Leader said he is awaiting the results of a third-party study due by the end of the year on whether it would be safe to bring back ATO, as the technology is called, which was suspended from use after the Fort Totten crash, in which eight passengers and a train operator died.

Leader said he and Metro’s chief safety officer, Patrick Lavin, are not confident that the software system existing on Metro since it opened 40 years ago comports with current-day procedures and requirements to protect the safety of maintenance workers and inspectors out on the tracks during service hours.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/tr ... dc712845cc" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The use of ATO did not cause the 2009 Fort Totten collision. The parasitic oscillation identified would have impacted both ATO and manual operations.

Lavin is also the one that has put in place new roadway worker protection procedures with no thought given to compatibility with ATO; they've made it harder on themselves to return to ATO.