Fwd: I want answers from Metro by next Friday

[Ray Wedell]

Here's a local issue you may want to jump on....

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From: "Sen. Mark Warner's Office" <donot...@warner.senate.gov>
To: rayw...@comcast.net
Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2015 3:41:30 AM
Subject: I want answers from Metro by next Friday

If you have just a minute, I’d like to give you a quick update on efforts to discover the cause – and, more importantly, learn from any mistakes – related to Metro’s fatal smoke incident at L’Enfant Plaza on Jan. 12. An Alexandria resident, Carol Glover, lost her life during this incident, and more than 80 Metro passengers had to be hospitalized after being trapped in smoke-filled cars of a stranded Metro train. The National Transit Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the incident, and I am continuing to push hard for NTSB and Metro officials to provide reassurances that Virginians boarding Metro trains today are safe. I was angry and appalled at the chaotic response to the Jan. 12 incident.  We still don’t know why it took anywhere from 25 to 35 minutes to shut down power to the track’s third rail so first responders could begin evacuating sick passengers. That is unacceptable. At a briefing this week for members of Congress from Virginia, Maryland and Washington, a briefing which I demanded the day after the incident -- we learned a few new details about the circumstances around this incident. Specifically, we learned about continuing challenges with Metro’s ventilation and tunnel exhaust systems, which may actually have worsened the situation as smoke filled the Metro cars after an electric arcing incident on Jan. 12. The NTSB is still trying to get to the bottom of that. We also learned about a communications breakdown between Metro and D.C. Fire and EMS. This communications failure apparently was the result of a recent D.C. radio upgrade which was not adequately coordinated with Metro, or it may have been the result of a failure of specific Metro radio equipment inside L’Enfant Plaza. Either way, we need to find and fix these problems now, and make sure there aren’t similar problems elsewhere on Metro’s network.  Yesterday, I asked the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG)  to immediately begin work with the Metro oversight board to create a more robust process for guaranteeing all of the radio networks used by each of the region’s emergency responders can talk to each other.  You can read my letter here.  I have asked them to get back to me with a plan by next Friday. Since the horrific 9/11 terror attacks at the Pentagon, in New York and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, more than 13 years ago, our nation has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to improve emergency communications and provide reliable and secure public safety networks which can communicate with each other.  We cannot prevent every accident, but we must make sure that our emergency response teams are as well prepared as possible. You, or someone you know, uses Metro trains every day. You deserve to know we are doing everything possible to maintain safety, and I want to assure you that I will continue to keep you updated on their progress. Regards -- Mark Warner

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