METRO in the news
The Chronicle's Rad Sallee reports on preliminary findings from the panel asked to look into METRO's problems last month with routing trains onto the same track:
Although a final report may be weeks away, Reginald Mason, Metro's chief safety officer, presented preliminary findings to the Metro board last week.
Besides having more control staff at TranStar, the panel suggested installing an "audible alarm" there to sound when a switch is in a dangerous position. The situation is displayed visually now but might not be noticed in time to prevent an accident.
The panel also found Metro's light rail rules are unclear in assigning safety responsibilities, leading to confusion among those involved in the incident.
"It was very unclear who had control of the mainline operations," Mason said, referring to the train operator and her superiors, the maintenance staff or the controllers at TranStar.
The panel said the MetroRail rule book should be revised "to ensure clear responsibility and accountability," and Metro should hold daily meetings among personnel of the three rail divisions to coordinate their activities safely.
Since the incident, Metro has begun retraining its light rail operators and conducting all track maintenance at night, after the line shuts down, president and CEO Frank Wilson said. For several months, the agency has been installing signals that show rail operators the position of a switch long before the train is close enough for observation of the switch itself.
It sounds as if METRO is taking these incidents seriously, despite John Sedlak's spin a few weeks ago.
In a separate story, Sallee reports good and bad news for METRO. The good news is that Danger Train collisions are down:
[B]oth bus and rail accidents are tracking far below the levels needed to reach Metro's "goal" for the year in both categories.
It may seem odd to have a collision goal of anything but zero, but you have to be realistic.
Yes, when you build rail at street level in an already congested corridor, you have to expect problems. It's nice to see METRO finally accepting reality. Or being "realistic," as Sallee put it.
The bad news, as reported by Sallee, is that paid system ridership is declining (or flat, at best). METRO critic Tom Bazan makes an appearance in the story, causing METRO's PR staff to swing into action:
Finally, regular Metro critic Tom Bazan asked the board how its statistics could show revenue from MetroRail ticket vending machines remaining flat from 2004 to 2007 while rail boardings doubled.
Bazan said he thinks most of the increase in rail boardings increase came from bus riders who now transfer to rail because their old bus routes were altered to connect with it.
Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said it doesn't make sense that a bus system with declining ridership would generate enough transfers to cause a doubling of rail riders.
TVM receipts don't tell the whole story, she said, since many MetroRail riders use time-activated and stored-value cards.
"We are still studying what is going on," Roberts said.
We're sure they'll get right to the bottom of it.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/04/07 11:08 PM | Print |
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