“It was a scary video,” he said.
But even more worrisome was Metro’s conduct following the incident, Foxx said. In addition to returning that stretch of track to regular passenger service, Metro officials blocked federal inspectors from examining the damage for several hours. Metro officials only shut down that stretch of track, closing two stations, after a second smoke incident, caused by debris along the track, at the same station later that afternoon.
The incident prompted Federal Transit Administration officials on Saturday to issue a series of emergency directives to Metro, once again threatening to shut down all or parts of the nation’s second-busiest subway system unless it took urgent action.
Foxx said he would not hesitate to take such action if Metro officials fail to heed basic safety practices.
“I could go on for a long time detailing Metro’s problems,” Foxx said. “The culture of safety is not where we want to see it.”
In April, acting FTA Administrator Carolyn Flowers also threatened to shut down Metro down after a track fire on the Red Line near the Friendship Heights station sent smoke pouring into a Metro tunnel Apr. 23. Two days later, officials blamed the problems on a “foreign object” that made contact with the electrified third rail.
“Following FTA’s track integrity blitz and a series of recent incidents since April 23, FTA identified numerous safety defects along a segment of the Red Line,” Flowers said in a statement to The Post earlier this month. “Those included multiple locations of water intrusion, track structure and traction power issues, which we determined needed immediate attention. I conveyed to General Manager Paul Wiedefeld on April 27 that if WMATA did not take immediate action, FTA was prepared to order [a shutdown].”
Foxx also said Tuesday that while the “SafeTrack” program Wiedefeld announced Friday will help Metro tackle a backlog of maintenance, it will not be enough to stop the smoke and electrical problems that continue to plague the system.
“We’ve taken a look at SafeTracks,” Foxx said. “I think it’s great to try to shrink your main schedule down from three years to a year, but as we looked at it, there was not a strong correlation between that and fixing what we saw Thursday and that’s why we issued the directive.”
Foxx continued: “I’m actually being charitable–there wasn’t a correlation,” he said. “I think it’s an ambitious proposal to improve the maintenance of the system and one would expect that by improving the maintenance of the system, you’d get a safety benefit out of it. But some of the instances we’re seeing with fire and smoke, the arcing, the porcelain insulators catching fire — there’s not all together a direct relationship between those incidents and what they will be doing on the maintenance side.”
Metro officials said that SafeTracks isn’t meant to be a cure-all.
“SafeTrack is more than just the surges,” Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said. “The surges are meant to address longstanding issues. For example, where we have wooden ties that need to be addressed.”
Stessel noted that the increased time allowed for maintenance under SafeTrack will enable workers to address the issues raised by both FTA and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Under a series of emergency directives issued by the FTA, Metro must do daily inspections for “hot spots” and water leaks along tracks and use fewer trains (six-car trains instead of eight-car trains) traveling at slower speeds so that they will use less power. FTA also demanded a “safety stand-down” so that all Metro staffers can be retrained in proper procedures. That training must be completed by May 16.
However, on Tuesday, Stessel said that the transit agency does not plan to reduce its use of eight-car trains saying that Metro officials have requested more information on the reasoning behind that directive.
“There is an open dialogue on that issue,” he said.