Panel Offers More Tips for Improving Metro North Rail Safety

Monitor track conditions more closely with better data systems, change train schedules to allow more time for track work, and change the attitude of employees and management toward safety.

Those three things top the final list of recommendations made by a panel of transportation experts who started studying safety and maintenance practices at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s railroad operations after a fatal derailment on Metro North’s Hudson Line in December 2013 threw a harsh light on serious deficiencies on all three of its rail services: Metro North, the Long Island Railroad and New York City Transit.

It has been a brutal year for Metro-North, which saw eroded commuter confidence in the face of derailments in Bridgeport and the Bronx, excessive and relentless delays, constant electrical problems and a sharply-criticized communication structure.

“The Blue Ribbon Panel believes that safety is fundamental to a high-quality transit operation, and identified many areas where the MTA’s railroad agencies need to improve their management and operations, but the Panel also found the agencies are committed to change and are taking concrete steps to improve their operations and their safety culture,” Mortimer L. Downey, Chair Person of the Blue Ribbon Panel, who is a former Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of the MTA, said in a press release. “We hope our report provides a framework for improvement, and we expect our recommendations will lead to better and safer rail operations throughout the MTA.”

The panel made 29 specific recommendations after interviewing employees from front-line workers to executives, attending safety training, visiting work sites, and comparing their findings against practices at other railroad operations.

The MTA has also faced findings by the National TransportationSafety Board, the Federal Railroad Administration, and a Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI) review of Metro-North operations.

The Panel noted that the MTA has taken many steps to improve safety since it began its work.

Those include: “enhancing track inspection and maintenance, beefing up the safety and training departments, expanding employee testing programs to ensure understanding of safety rules and creating a computer-based track worker safety program. Metro-North and the LIRR are pursuing a confidential close-call reporting system, are in the process of installing alerters and video cameras in engineers’ cabs, and are accelerating the installation of a Positive Train Control system, which is regarded as the best signal system available for train control.”