Federal Railroad Administration officials said their severely critical report to Congress this month on the accident-plagued Metro-North Railroad is “an urgent call to action” for Metro-North leaders to derail the railroad”™s current organizational culture and turn the nation”™s second largest commuter line into “a model of safe railroad operations.”
Metro-North Railroad President Joseph J. Giulietti called the federal report “deeply troubling” and said it raises “real concerns” that he too has found since arriving at Metro-North as its new head on Feb. 1.
The federal report followed the release this month of a draft of Giulietti”™s 100-day plan to improve safety at the 6,000-employee subsidiary of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. At a recent press conference he said the federal report “has affirmed what we already felt were the issues going forward.”
Giulietti succeeded Howard Permut, a Metro-North executive for 30 years who in January resigned as president after a series of accidents and derailments last year on Metro-North lines. On Dec. 1, a speeding seven-car Hudson Line train jumped the tracks on a curve in Riverdale and plunged within a few feet of the Harlem River, killing four New York City-bound passengers and injuring more than 70 others. That fatal crash prompted the FRA to issue emergency directives and order MTA officials to immediately begin using a confidential close call reporting system to identify early indicators of safety issues on both the Metro-North and the Long Island Rail Road.
On Dec. 16, the federal agency launched a 60-day assessment of Metro-North”™s operations and safety compliance by more than 60 experts working in 14 teams.
The federal report, Operation Deep Dive, found all facets of Metro-North were affected by an overemphasis on on-time performance, an ineffective safety department and poor safety culture, and an ineffective training program.
“This emphasis on on-time performance, combined with the increased volume of train activity, appears to have led managers and supervisors to allow inspections, maintenance and employee training to lapse,” the report said. “This, in turn, led to a deficient safety culture, which manifested itself in increased risk and reduced safety on Metro-North.”
“Employees across all crafts expressed concern with this emphasis,” according to the report, “and further expressed the view that, while their individual safety is important, the need to maintain on-time performance is often perceived as the most important criteria.”
Operation Deep Dive gives a look inside an organization where employee training is “inconsistent and often fragmented” and supervisors administering the testing are themselves untrained. The railroad”™s 50-employee training department is understaffed, the report said, and its training records system is “burdensome, inefficient and a source of frustration for department employees.”
With 700 new employees hired at Metro-North in 2013 and about 800 more expected to be hired this year in the wake of a wave of retirements, an effective training program “is critical for safe operations,” the report said.
Looking at the safety of railway maintenance workers, the federal team found Metro-North had conflicting operating rules regarding use of cellular phones, “which results in uncertainty and confusion.” Track maintenance workers commonly used their cellphones on the job. Federal rail officials recommended Metro-North consider changing its electronic device distraction policy to include those employees and prohibit cellphone use when they are on or near the tracks.
The federal team found “numerous, easily detectable safety issues” throughout railroad operations “that should have been discovered by the Metro-North management, including the fact that Metro-North employees were not wearing personal protective equipment.”
“Metro-North”™s current safety culture fails to create a positive and productive environment that encourages safe operations, and the safety department is ineffective as a proactive safety advocate,” the report concluded.
The FRA directed railroad officials to take these actions:
_ Immediately “put safety front and center, and communicate and implement that priority throughout the organization.”
_ Submit within 60 days a plan to improve the safety department”™s mission and effectiveness.
_ Submit within 60 days a plan to improve the training program.
Metro-North has until May 17 to present the federal agency a plan addressing all actions outlined in the report. FRA officials will meet monthly with Metro-North to review and evaluate the organization”™s progress.
Noting “the many good employees” who met with the Deep Dive teams, federal officials said they will give Metro-North”™s new leadership “a solid foundation upon which to begin immediate improvements and effect long-term cultural change.”
Giulietti said his draft 100-day plan will be revised to address the specific issues in the Deep Dive report. Metro-North is reorganizing its safety department and is creating the confidential close-call reporting system used by other railroads around the nation “so that employees can report safety issues without fear of reprisal,” he said.
Giulietti, who rejoined Metro-North after 15 years at the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, agreed with Operation Deep Dive experts that “there is a problem with culture” at Metro-North.
“As I”™ve learned in the last month, it”™s not just a problem with one or two departments,” he said. “Culture develops over years. And it will take time to change culture as well.”
Connecticut blogger and communications consultant Jim Cameron, who recently founded Commuter Action Group, a grassroots advocacy organization for Metro-North commuters, on his “Talking Transportation” blog called the Operation Deep Dive report “a substantiation of my worst fears” about Metro-North.
“There are no quick fixes to this mess,” Cameron wrote. “It took year of invisible neglect for Metro-North to slide into this abyss, and it will take years to rebuild the railroad and regain riders”™ trust.”
