Washington subway crash

[classicman]

he's about 85% done.

[glatt]

NTSB is having their final meeting as I write this, and they will release the executive summary of their report after the conclusion of the meeting. The full report will be released in a few weeks.

I expect it will blame the accident on Metro's mixing of parts in the signaling system, turning up the power on those parts to get them to work together, and the bobbing that resulted from turning up the power, making the train invisible to the computers. I think they will also say that the cars need to be hardened so they don't crumple as much on impact. I think all the blame will be placed at Metro's feet. We'll soon see.

[xoxoxoBruce]

And Metro will turn around and dump it on some schmuck in maintenance.

[classicman]

Isn't the crumpling design specifically done to create an accordion effect? Not good if you are in one, but still. I would think they are lighter, meaning more fuel efficient, and cheaper - always the money...

[glatt]

The crumpling in this case is more along the lines of splitting open and allowing the other train to smash right through the entire car, so it's not really such a good feature. But I think they should focus their efforts on preventing the crashes in the first place and not so much on making them more survivable.

[tw]

If the report is accurate, it will identify the number one reason for this and other problems.

Metro management was asked to provide a list of their top ten problems. Metro had no list. Had done no problem studies. Did not know of existing problems rampant throughout the system (ie bobbing was only one). Classic when management is educated in business schools.

A repair crew left the scene with signals still bobbing. Crew informed management. Management ignored the failed system, had no means of reporting the failure, and did nothing for two or three days. Then the crash happened.

Problem was transistor leakage. Rather than fix the problems, repair crews did the only thing they could - adjust power. A problem that required people with far more knowledge and equipment. Management that comes from where the work gets done would have known that. But instead, management philosophy was to ignore problems - to disempower employees in a way described in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. The signal was bobbing for days - until eventually someone was killed.

Management's job is to work for the employees. No list of their top ten problems existed. Absolutely essential if they were working for employees. Management did not. Therefore some 60% of all rail worker deaths in this nation were on one system - Metro. Informed management calls it murder. Incompetent management called numerous events accidents.

A classic example: 85% of all problems are directly traceable to top management.

[classicman]

.

[Pete Zicato]

♪♫ It seems to me I've heard that song before
It's from an old familiar score
I know it well, that melody♫♪

[classicman]

Ahhhh ole blue eyes...

[tw]

From the Washington Post of 28 July 2010:

NTSB blames '09 Metro crash on track circuit failures, negligent safety attitude
Metro has known since the 2005 Rosslyn near-crash that the automatic train-control system had experienced dangerous breakdowns but had not widely implemented a track circuit test developed after that incident, the NTSB found. ...

Instead, with track circuit problems setting off thousands of alarms each week, workers at Metro's Operations Control Center were not acknowledging them, NTSB investigator Ruben Payan said. "Unfortunately, they were being ignored because of the large amount that were being reported," he said. ...

Metro was aware of track circuit problems as far back as 1988, the NTSB said. ...

The NTSB said Metro should replace the 1,482 circuits that were built by GRS. Metro tested those circuits after the crash and found that 208 had the same malfunction that caused the crash. ...

With undisguised irritation, Hersman criticized Metro for not implementing many previous NTSB recommendations aimed at improving safety. "It's almost like we are talking with someone who is tone-deaf. They are not hearing it, they are not getting it and they are not addressing the problems," she said. "Our frustration is that if they don't listen this time, I am not sure what can be done."

... that as of January, Metro board Chairman Peter Benjamin had not placed safety oversight in the board's mission statement and that former chairman Jim Graham had not heard of Metro's safety oversight organization, the Tri-State Oversight Committee (TOC). For its part, they said the TOC lacks "teeth" and cannot force Metro to be accountable for safety problems.

"This accident is a classic organizational accident," said NTSB member Robert L. Sumwalt.

Organizational accident is the politically correct way of saying management committed murder. But we should not charge them with the crime.

The system so routinely failed - and management considered failure so normal - that the operation center routinely ignored all alarms for signal failures. That should be called murder.

[glatt]

You're right, tw.

NTSB identifies the problem, but has no authority to force them to fix it, and the real underlying problem is the way Metro runs through 3 jurisdictions, so there is no single entity in charge of it.

With undisguised irritation, Hersman [the NTSB Chair] criticized Metro for not implementing many previous NTSB recommendations aimed at improving safety. "It's almost like we are talking with someone who is tone-deaf. They are not hearing it, they are not getting it and they are not addressing the problems," she said. "Our frustration is that if they don't listen this time, I am not sure what can be done."

Congress needs to step in and transfer oversight of Metro to the Feds. It needs a single qualified leader. And a single dependable funding source to supplement fares.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Or raise the rates enough to cover expenses, after chopping the compensation of management to the level of the workers.

[glatt]

public transportation needs subsidies to compete with the automobile, which gets tons of subsidies too.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

There's this widespread idea that public transit should lose money, and be a tax-supported entity.

This may be the one thing wrong with public transit that getting Libertarian on their ass, and doing transit on a for-profit basis instead, would cure every trouble transit ever had. Through the impulsion of the market.

Time was, public transit was done on a for-profit basis. It also worked. You could research that.

[glatt]

There's this widespread idea that the road system should lose money, and be a tax-supported entity.

This may be the one thing wrong with the road system that getting Libertarian on their ass, and doing road works on a for-profit basis instead, would cure every trouble the roads ever had. Through the impulsion of the market.

Time was, the road system was done on a for-profit basis. It also worked. You could research that.