(The following story by Lena H. Sun and Joe Stephens appeared on the Washington Post website on December 10, 2009.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.) criticized senior managers at Metro on Thursday for what she described as a series of lapses in safety oversight and accountability that she said has national ramifications.
Testifying before a Senate transportation subcommittee, Mikulski said 11 passengers and workers had died after being injured in three Metro accidents in the past six months. The senator, who serves on a separate subcommittee that secures funding for the Metro system, accused Metro of paying “lip service” to safety.
“The Metro board needs to take appropriate action,” Mikulski said. “We’ve got problems with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority itself.”
She stopped short of specifying what the action might be or naming any Metro executives.
Mikulski’s remarks came at a hearing called to consider the Obama administration’s proposal to overhaul safety regulation of the nation’s subway and light-rail systems. Safety oversight is ceded to 27 state-run organizations with varying degrees of power and funding. The proposal would grant the Transportation Department direct regulatory oversight and set national safety standards for subways and light-rail systems nationwide.
The overhaul was prompted by recent high-profile accidents, particularly the June 22 Metro crash in Northeast Washington that killed nine people, the worst accident in the agency’s 33-year history.
Mikulski’s criticism of Metro was striking because she has been key in securing dedicated federal funding for the transit agency. She is a member of the Senate appropriations transportation subcommittee, which has advanced a bill that would provide $150 million to Metro for capital projects, with priority to urgent safety upgrades. The bill was recently approved by a House-Senate conference committee.
“We’ve gotten them the money,” Mikulski said at the hearing. “Now we need fresh, aggressive management” at Metro.
Two Metro workers were fatally injured on the tracks in August and September. A series of articles in The Washington Post over the last six months has examined safety lapses and oversight failures that preceded those deaths.
Asked by a reporter whether she was calling for Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. to step down, Mikulski declined to answer directly, saying: “The board needs to establish benchmarks of performance and hold the management team responsible. I’m not the personnel director, but the board is charged with operation, reliability and safety of Metro.”
She also said the public “has a real confidence gap” in Metro. She said Metro’s approach is to have meetings: “Catoe wants to have a meeting with me. I don’t want to have a meeting. I want action.”
Catoe told reporters after the hearing that Mikulski was “bringing up the frustration we all share. I will hold my people accountable, and I expect to be held accountable. I will commit every ounce of my energy to focus on our safety issues, and I’m making the same commitment of my staff.”
He also said Metro would be devoting $4 million more to safety training for workers, which he said he hoped would “take away some of the concerns” for Mikulski and riders.
In written remarks to the subcommittee, Mikulski was blunter than in her spoken testimony.
“I am not happy about Metro management,” Mikulski wrote. “I have no confidence in Metro. Every time you turn around or turn a page, there is a problem. There is a pattern of laxity, passivity and lip service.”
“As you can see, I am really hot about this,” she said. “There are severe management difficulties at Metro. I call upon Metro’s board to take appropriate and immediate action.”