[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11197-11198]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          2009 METRO ACCIDENT

  Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I rise today to mark a sad day for the 
National Capital region. On the eve of the 1 year anniversary of the 
deadliest accident in Metro's history, I would like to extend my 
deepest condolences to the families of the nine victims who perished on 
June 22, 2009. On that day around 5 p.m., a Red Line train collided 
with another train that sat stopped between the Takoma and Fort Totten 
stops as it waited for the Fort Totten station to clear. The first car 
of the moving train, an outdated model over 30 years old, sustained 
tremendous structural damage which resulted in significant casualties. 
As Virginian, this issue is especially important to me because 1 of the 
9 victims who died--the train's operator--as well as 15 of the 80 
people injured were fellow Virginians.
  The unfortunate events of that day shed light on some glaring 
problems with our Nation's public transportation systems, and should 
provide us with a sense of urgency to accomplish the task of ensuring 
the safety of public transportation users.
  Metro itself and its oversight agency--the Tri-State Oversight 
Committee--TOC--are both in dire need of reform. While it has taken 
steps towards addressing the problem, Metro needs to continue to make 
safety its top priority. Full analysis of potential hazards and safety 
concerns needs to be done, and Metro must start regimented

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data collection efforts so that safety problems can be tracked and 
prioritized. Top Metro executives--those with decisionmaking 
authority--need to be involved in critical safety conversations, and 
need to have the relevant information in their hands when making 
important safety decisions.
  I am proud that we have been able to provide $1.5 billion in Federal 
funds over 10 years to make capital improvements to Metro, but this 
cannot be a blank check. Replacing the outdated 1000 series railcars is 
a huge priority, and Metro is poised to sign the contract that will 
enable them to phase out the older cars with newer, safer models. But 
more needs to be done. Metro needs to demonstrate safety improvements 
it has been making and ensure that it will continue to make safety its 
top priority if it expects continued financial support.
  More broadly, this accident has highlighted that the safety of our 
public transportation systems should be a priority nationwide. We have 
been working in the Senate developing a legislative approach to 
ensuring proper safety standards are in place. Incredibly, FTA 
currently has no authority to regulate our Nation's transit agencies or 
develop national safety standards. A new draft bill developed by 
Senators Dodd, Shelby, and Menendez will give FTA the tools to develop 
a national transit safety plan while also providing states the 
resources and flexibility to develop more robust transit safety 
oversight. The Banking Committee, of which I am a member, will soon 
consider this legislation and I am pleased that we are moving towards 
making progress in this area so that preventable tragedies, such as the 
one that occurred a year ago, will be a thing of the past.

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