The D.C. Metro has clearly not turned the corner on safety

By Editorial Board,

LIKE AIR traffic controllers, the rail controllers who staff the nerve center of the D.C. area’s Metro subway system have one overriding responsibility: to keep passengers and employees safe and alive. Or, as Metro itself put it in a list of hiring qualifications for the center’s director: a “zealous commitment to achieving safety results.”

That zealous commitment has evidently been badly lacking, according to a withering audit by the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission, the independent watchdog charged with monitoring and enforcing safety at Metro. At Metro’s Rail Operations Control Center, which functions as the cockpit for the entire subway system, safety seems to have been regarded by key supervisors more as a nuisance than a north star.

That finding is unnerving today, when Metrorail’s ridership, devastated by the pandemic, consists largely of health-care and other essential workers; it is equally unnerving to think it was also the case six months ago, when trains were jammed with hundreds of thousands of daily commuters.

The center’s apparent breakdown in standards, value, culture and a basic commitment to safety comes on the watch of Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld. Since assuming the system’s top job in 2015, he has stressed safety relentlessly and, according to his official biography on Metro’s website, the system has “turned the corner” on it. There is little doubt Mr. Wiedefeld is an able manager; there seems equally little question that his work to ensure that rail travel is safe is incomplete.

What’s chilling about the audit report is not only that the problems it describes at the rail control center are deep-seated; it’s that many of them had been previously identified. According to the report, Lisa Woodruff, Metro’s recently reassigned top official for rail services, encouraged rail controllers to stonewall the safety commission, resist safety fixes and “paint a rosy picture” for an internal reform team at Metro. The understaffed control center’s roughly 100 employees are poorly trained, demoralized and badly overworked, and sometimes on duty for weeks without a day off, the audit found.

According to the report, practically everything was tolerated at the control center. Controllers said supervisors ignored warnings about safety lapses and disrepair, discouraging future such warnings. Bullying and shouting, along with racial and sexual harassment, were unremarkable events. Little wonder that more than a quarter of the center’s controller staff turned over last year, according to the audit.

At least two of Metro’s own board members, justifiably alarmed at the report, have suggested shutting down all rail service until the safety issues are addressed. That’s an understandable reaction; it’s also misguided. Metrorail is a lifeline for many of the region’s critical workers, including those who staff hospitals, first responders and key government employees. Mr. Wiedefeld and his team must repair the problems as they keep the trains running.

The clock is ticking for Metro. The auditors gave officials 45 days to respond with specific action plans to the 21 problems they raised in the report. Time to get rolling.

Read more: Paul J. Wiedefeld: How Metro plans to gradually return to full service The Post’s View: Why transit must survive the virus The Post’s View: Is Metro finally turning a corner? The Post’s View: Metro is struggling to restart — and survive Letter to the editor: Metro and other authorities need to reinvent mass transit