The feds tell Metro to rearrange its maintenance plans

That SafeTrack plan of maintenance and shutdowns you learned about last week might be out the window, or at least significantly changed. The Federal Transit Administration just instructed Metro to do maintenance on three sections of track before starting on its SafeTrack maintenance plan.

In a letter the FTA just sent WMATA, FTA demands that Metro rearrange priorities to first focus on three sections of tracks:

• Medical Center to Van Ness
• Potomac Ave to the “D&G junction,” where the tracks split toward Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road
• East Falls Church to Ballston

All of these are among the 15 “surge” shutdowns, but just not scheduled first. The western Red Line segment was slated for single-tracking after 8 pm every day in January and February, 2017. Potomac Avenue to D&G was going to happen in August of this year. And East Falls Church to Ballston was slated for November into December.

As the FTA letter notes, Metro was mainly focusing on the Red Line tunnel from Friendship Heights to Medical Center, but the FTA believes there need to be more repairs between Friendship Heights and Van Ness as well.

A lot of this seems to be a response to the incident last week at Federal Center SW, where an insulator overheated and exploded near the platform. Metro shut down the station, but only once General Manager Paul Wiedefeld got involved personally. The FTA has said in an earlier letter that Metro’s Rail Operations Control Center (ROCC) wouldn’t allow inspectors onto the tracks after that explosion.

Where’s the coordination?

There’s no doubt that Metro needs to fix its arcing insulators. What happened at Federal Center SW last week was scary. (The fact that some people inside Metro apparently refused to let inspectors on the tracks is another huge issue that we were about to write a post about, but this took precedence.)

However, having Metro spend months devising a plan and then having the FTA suddenly tell them to turn it upside down is not likely a good way to run a railroad. Metro and the FTA have to be working together, coordinating the best and most efficient ways to solve the system’s many problems. Since the three areas mentioned are already part of SafeTrack, the FTA and WMATA could have worked together to prioritize the work needing to be done before the plan and this letter came out.

The FTA might need to demand Metro drop everything and obey an urgent directive, but that should be a rare exception, not a first step. The FTA might need to demand Metro be shut down completely, as Secretary Anthony Foxx threatened, but that should be a last resort - basically, ad admission of failure by BOTH Metro and the feds. The policy of dictating requirements to WMATA without similarly offering solutions doesn’t seem to be the best way to go.

As WMATA General Manager/CEO Paul Wiedefeld said at his press conference last week, the 15 “surge” shutdowns aren’t the extent of the maintenance. Metro is also going to be doing substantial maintenance during nights and weekends by shutting down earlier at night, in addition to making use of the typical overnight time available. As well, track work is not going away once SafeTrack concludes; the system always will need work.

Find the person who’ll fix it and trust them

We don’t know what’s the right order to perform maintenance. We’re not rail maintenance experts. But back when Metro was looking for a leader and facing problems of maintenance, finance, leadership, reputation, and more, the message from a lot of knowledgeable people was this: Find someone capable of fixing the problem, then hire them, and empower them to take action.

So far, it seems Paul Wiedefeld is that guy. We sure hope so. Since taking over, Wiedefeld has been open and vocal about the system’s problems, not shying away from admitting how much work it will entail. It doesn’t seem like he’s shying away from doing what it will take.

If he proves for some reason he’s not that guy, then he has to be replaced with someone who is. But unless and until that happens, the only real way forward is for everyone to work with Wiedefeld and stand behind him.

Ensure he has the best information. Try to persuade him. So far, he’s been open to listening to everyone, from governors and federal transportation secretaries to regular riders. But then, once he takes in everyone’s ideas, he has to be able to make a call on some of these specific details, like which week to fix which tracks.

The Board of Directors used to micromanage Metro, and this was one of the flaws a lot of people called to fix. Now it looks awfully like the FTA is trying to micromanage it instead. Even if FTA is right and Paul wrong about the relative priority, which isn’t at all clear (and the FTA letter doesn’t make the case), this just doesn’t seem like a recipe for success.