Local Congress Members Ponder How To Help Metro

WASHINGTON - Seven Washington-area area Congressional Representatives and U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski sat down for an hour Friday with Deborah Hersman, the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

It was a behind-closed-doors explanation of the NTSB’s findings and recommendations after a one-year investigation of the 2009 crash of two of Metro’s Red Line trains. The federal safety agency had issued a scathing report on Tuesday, blaming circuit problems for the crash and indicting Metro managers and its board for a weak safety culture.

Afterward, Maryland Congressman Steny Hoyer told reporters he felt angry and sad. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) said, “It just hurt my heart to hear that Metro failed to fully test the section of track where the crash occurred.”

Maintenance crews had changed some circuit equipment in that section of track a few days before the crash.

Mikulski vowed to redouble her efforts to bring Metro (and the nation’s other subway systems) under the Federal Transit Administration. Although various federal agencies monitor safety issues for the nation’s truckers, inter-city buses, airlines and railroads, there is no current federal oversight of rail transit systems.

The proposed legislation is stuck in the Senate because of a hold placed by another member of the chamber. Mikulski believes the hold has been placed by Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn [R], a fiscal conservative.

Coburn is a physician by training. Sen. Mikulski said she plans to appeal to Coburn as a doctor, saying oversight of transit systems is a safety and health issue.

Coburn’s office had no immediate comment.