D.C. Metro crash || Photo: Reuters

Following the subway accident on June 22 in the Washington, D.C. Metro, resulting in the deaths of nine commuters, it was made known that federal safety officials had previously warned that the type of train cars involved could be unsafe in crashes, and called for them to be replaced or, at least, strengthened.

Still, the Washington transit agency did nothing after the federal warning. Not because they did not also see the same problem, but because the agency could not afford to replace the cars, which make up more than a quarter of those used in the system.

Metro — like most mass transit agencies throughout the country — is on the verge of operating in deficit, as a shortfall of $154 million is projected for fiscal year 2010.

A tax shelter, also, according to the terms of a lease-back agreement — in which Metro raised extra funds by selling its trains to private companies, such as SunTrust Banks Inc. and KBC Group NV, that would, in return, lease them back — meant the leased cars, like the ones involved in the accident, have to remain in service until 2014.

According to Bloomberg, “The National Transportation Safety Board had advised Metro to improve its rail cars after a January 1996 collision that killed a train operator. In a 2006 report, the NTSB said it was dropping the matter because (Metro) was citing funding concerns related to lease-back agreements…”

The problem: Any federal mass-transit inspections or findings are nothing but symbolic at-best. Unlike with the Food and Drug Administration, for example, the government cannot recall flawed equipment or issue citations for ignoring recommendations.

Transit State of Good Repair

Graphic: Federal Transit Administration

A 2008 report by the Federal Transit Administration, “Transit State of Good Repair,” said, “Roughly one-quarter of the nation’s bus and rail assets are in marginal or poor condition (implying these assets are near or past their useful life or have one or more defective or deteriorated components). The proportion of assets in marginal or poor condition jumps to one-third when the analysis is limited to the nation’s nine largest rail agencies (including these agencies’ non-rail assets).”

The disrepair, according to the report, is the consequence of the fact that “the total level of investment required to bring the nation’s bus and rail assets to a state of good repair is currently estimated at $25 billion ($2004). This investment would effectively replace all assets that currently exceed their expected useful life and address delayed rehabilitation activities. After eliminating the backlog, an additional $9 to $11 billion from all sources is required annually to maintain this state of good repair into the future. At present, annual capital reinvestment rates are only 60 (percent) to 80 (percent) of that required to address both the existing backlog and normal replacement needs.”

President Obama, with Vice-President Biden, signing the stimulus bill into law last February in Denver. || Photo: The New York Times

When the stimulus bill was passed last February, it sent billions of dollars to the nation’s mass-transit agencies. Still, the money was purposed for only new equipment and construction — nothing to operate the systems, even as many are cutting service, laying off workers or raising fares.

An agency may get a new bus or build a new bus shelter using stimulus dollars, but, potentially, they would not have the operating funds to employ a new driver to run the new bus to the new stop.

For several months following the release of stimulus funds to transit agencies, the Obama Administration seemed opposed to repurposing any of the federal money to keep transit operating budgets solvent. Instead, only the benefits of new building — such as job creation — was championed.

Last Friday, however, President Obama signed legislation into law enabling transit agencies to use up to 10 percent of their stimulus dollars to cover operating costs for equipment and facilities. The provision, oddly, was tucked inside the latest war spending bill.

[This is an excerpt from the text of the bill]
H.R. 2346: Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2009

Sec. 1202. A recipient and subrecipient of funds appropriated in Public Law 111-5 and apportioned pursuant to section 5311 and section 5336 (other than subsection (i)(1) and (j)) of title 49, United States Code, may use up to 10 percent of the amount apportioned for the operating costs of equipment and facilities for use in public transportation or for eligible activities under section 5311(f): Provided, That a grant obligating such funds on or after February 17, 2009, may be amended to allow a recipient and subrecipient to use the funds made available for operating assistance: Provided further, That applicable chapter 53 requirements apply, except for the Federal share which shall be, at the option of the recipient, up to 100 percent.

D.C. Metro crash || Photo: Reuters

Though the funds were made available following the Metro subway crash last week in Washington, D.C. — the potential cause of which has been associated with the operating budget problems of the city’s mass-transit system — the legislation has no direct connection with the accident.

D.C. Metro crash || Photo: Reuters

On Monday evening in Washington, D.C., as area commuters headed home from work, a Metro train car rear-ended another car — resulting in the deaths of nine, so far, and critically injuring at least two.

Though the cause of the accident is still speculated, especially following two recent rail accidents nationally in the past year — in Los Angeles, where a commuter train collided with a freight train and 25 died, and in Boston, where a trolley rear-ended another trolley and injured 50 – officials said today the Metro train car involved was two months past due for scheduled maintenance on its brakes, and the car was an older model that federal officials had recommended be replaced because of concerns about its safety in a crash.

According to The Washington Post, officials have not said, however, “if they believe that the delayed maintenance played any role in the accident, or if they believe another type of rail car would have performed better in Monday’s crash.”

Still, as investigators are looking at possible mechanical, signal and operator failures for the cause of the accident, which also injured 75, the Metro system – like most mass transit agencies throughout the country – is on the verge of operating in deficit (a shortfall of $154 million is projected for fiscal year 2010 – see map below).

At this point, though funding issues may or may not have been the reason for overdue maintenance and updates to the train car, two U.S. Senators just released a letter to their colleagues asking for $50 million in grants to improve rail safety technology. Commerce Committee Chair Jay Rockefeller (D., WV) and Environment Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D., CA) noted that a $50 million investment in technology improvement grants was authorized  under similar circumstances before — after the Los Angeles commuter rail accident — when Congress passed its rail safety law last year.

According to streetsblog.org, Sens. Rockefeller and Boxer wrote:

More commuters are turning to commuter rail today than ever before. In these tough economic times, with many commuter rail agencies facing budget cuts, funding for the railroad safety technology grants is vital to ensure that important safety measures continue to be implemented.

Blueprint America has found that communities — big and small, urban and rural — are, for the first time, rethinking their purpose. Is a city a place where people live, a place where they go to work, or both? What about after work, between home and the grind — is it a half hour by car or an hour by bus?

Do these questions even matter given the state of the national economy?

The thing of it is that the majority of our money goes to where we live and how we get from here to there and back again. Addressing those costs is the same as addressing the Recession.

PBS stations are producing radio and television segments, hosting discussions between policy makers and their communities, and offering further content online, all as a part of Blueprint America.