WMATA Safety Culture

[Sand Box John]

[broken record warning]
The ultimate solution is to procure more rolling stock to increase fleet size to allow more 8 car trains at closer headways.
[/broken record warning]

[mtuandrew]

And then reactivate ATO with a modern PTC overlay.

[Sand Box John]

"mtuandrew"
And then reactivate ATO with a modern PTC overlay.

Positive Train Control would add an additional redundancy to the multiple redundancies in the existing signaling and train control system that only need be maintained to designed specification. WMATA has shown that they have difficulty maintaining what they have now and the same would likely apply to positive train control.

[mtuandrew]

Fair, but the existing redundancies didn’t prevent past accidents. It’s worth upgrading the ATO system at least.

[Sand Box John]

"mtuandrew"
Fair, but the existing redundancies didn’t prevent past accidents. It’s worth upgrading the ATO system at least.

The existing redundancies failed because they were not maintained to designed specifications. Properly maintain the hardware and it will flawlessly do what it is designed to do.

The vast majority of the legacy wayside, discreet component, relay based, train control and signaling hardware has been upgraded to microprocessor based hardware that is hard coded to emulate the functionality of the legacy systems. What use to required 3 or 4 7' tall 19" racks will now fit in 1 2' tall 19" rack.

[MCL1981]

And when the same useless slugs fail to maintain the high tech new stuff, it will also fail and people will also die. Metro will blame lack of funding for spending all their funding on PR instead of maintenance. Jackie Jeter will blame all white people withing a 50 mile radius. The employees will blame contractors (from the break room). The contractors will blame Metro's contracting office. And the politicians will blame Trump or Obama. At the end of the day, nothing will change.

[Sand Box John]

"MCL1981"
And when the same useless slugs fail to maintain the high tech new stuff, it will also fail and people will also die. Metro will blame lack of funding for spending all their funding on PR instead of maintenance. Jackie Jeter will blame all white people withing a 50 mile radius. The employees will blame contractors (from the break room). The contractors will blame Metro's contracting office. And the politicians will blame Trump or Obama. At the end of the day, nothing will change.

Unfortunately that pretty much sums it up.

[Chris Brown]

And when the same useless slugs fail to maintain the high tech new stuff, it will also fail and people will also die. Metro will blame lack of funding for spending all their funding on PR instead of maintenance. Jackie Jeter will blame all white people withing a 50 mile radius. The employees will blame contractors (from the break room). The contractors will blame Metro's contracting office. And the politicians will blame Trump or Obama. At the end of the day, nothing will change.

I don't get your extreme over-the-top pessimism with WMATA.

WMATA is in the process of getting their act together and finding ways to root out incompetent employees.

Be patient. Expect to see real change start to show around 2020 and improve more from there.

[MCL1981]

I don't get your extreme over-the-top pessimism with WMATA.

Gee, maybe the decades of mismanagement, fraud, laziness, and negligence have something to do with it??

WMATA is in the process of getting their act together and finding ways to root out incompetent employees. Be patient. Expect to see real change start to show around 2020 and improve more from there.

My pessimism will cease when (if) WMATA shows some real change

[Chris Brown]

I don't get your extreme over-the-top pessimism with WMATA.

Gee, maybe the decades of mismanagement, fraud, laziness, and negligence have something to do with it??

Let me ask you this: Which transit system in the United States of equal or greater size and ridership is doing a significantly better job than WMATA?

Be specific and include facts that can be backed up.

[Head-end View]

I would nominate the New York City Transit Authority. They have their problems too, but their overall safety record is far better than WMATA's. As is their safety culture.

[MCL1981]

Let me ask you this: Which transit system in the United States of equal or greater size and ridership is doing a significantly better job than WMATA? Be specific and include facts that can be backed up.

No. That is an irrelevant distraction. My gripe is not that they are the worst or that they are not the best. I do not care what other transit systems do, because I do not ride them, and they will not kill me. My gripe is with WMATA, for what they are. Get over it.

[justalurker66]

How can say they are "the worst" then ignore all comparisons? It sounds like you have an empty argument.

Anyways ... back to 7000 series rail cars. This isn't a "safety culture" thread.

[MCL1981]

How can say they are "the worst" then ignore all comparisons? It sounds like you have an empty argument.

Never in the history of my posts have I claimed WMATA is the "the worst". In fact, I said the opposite of that. I am not arguing that they are the worst, nor am I arguing that they should be the best. Nor am I arguing any other specific metric other than "I want them to not suck". The notion that WMATA is a seriously flawed agency with numerous levels of fatality inducing dysfunction is not an empty argument. That is an established fact.

[mtuandrew]

Moderator Note: I split some posts off the 7000 thread because the safety culture at WMATA has been persistently called into question. Here are a few ground rules:

1. No ad hominem attacks. Neither posters, transit professionals, nor politicians should be called names here. Save that for Facebook and other platforms.
2. Cite sources when possible, and indicate when you have (or are) a confidential source.
3. Be realistic with solutions.