The tragedy which occurred just inside the District of Columbia just days ago involving two WMATA trains hits close to home for many in the surrounding area.  The 2010 Conservative Political Action Conference will be at a different hotel adjacent to the same Woodley Park/Zoo/Adams Morgan Red Line stop which many used to arrive at or depart from the conference. While CPAC was not near the Fort Totten stop where this calamity occurred, Fort Totten is also on the Red Line of the DC Metrorail system.  As such, the train crash is something about which to be concerned, not just for those who live in the area, but those who visit too.

Map of the D.C. Metrorail system.

 What has not been widely discussed in the course of the subsequent investigation, however, is the possibility that the planned expansion of the system further into Virginia may have factored into the crash on Monday. Since the beginning of this decade, there has been talk of building the so-called “Silver Line” to connect Washington Dulles International Airport to the rapid-trainsit rail system serving the District and its vicinity. Nonetheless, the planned addition took time to acquire funding and get started.

During the course of the National Transportation Safety Board inquiry into the accident Monday, information surfaced that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority was warned about structural deficiencies present in its older rail cars back in 2006. Said investigation also revealed that the deficient rail cars were neither retrofitted with stronger materials nor replaced outright; the upgrades would be costly, and progress was underway on devising a plan for the Silver Line. Instead of spending the money to upgrade the trains, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority used its fiscal resources to focus on expansion.

In 2004, a final Environmental Impact Statement was completed for the Silver Line project. This followed on evaluations of other possible options, and consulations with relevant Virginia and federal officials. Initially cleared by the Federal Transit Authority for construction in 2005, the project was delayed due to a shortage of available funds. Further complications arose in 2006 when residents in Northern Virginia expressed concern about specific details of the Silver Line project. As such, revisions occurred, further stalling development.

A series of letters back and forth between backers of the project and federal officials suggest that, even with project approval in 2008, the safety and currency of trains operated by Metrorail went overlooked. Some of the correspondence (pdf) suggested that the WMATA had unresolved issues about which federal officials remained concerned early last year. Despite a failure to verify that the WMATA was meeting its existing obligations, clearance was granted to the Silver Line project earlier this year.

The NTSB inquiry into this accident, already expected to last for several weeks, should be expanded to investigate why the Federal Transit Authority approved earlier this year the costly expansion of a system already failing to meet its obligations. The pricetag attached to the Dulles metrorail project demonstrates that accountability, rather than funding limitations, impacted the severity of the train wreck. The Silver Line is worth implementing, but not at the expense of public safety and meeting existing obligations. If a private corporation put short-term profits over long-term safety, resulting in multiple deaths so close to the eschelons of power , there is little doubt that members of Congress would demand resignations and very public investigations; that the federal bureaucracy has not raised legislative ire in this case is worrying, and suggests much about things to come.

Last 5 posts by James Kane

• A November to Remember - November 8th, 2010
• On hope and fear - October 18th, 2010
• Expecting Different Results - September 12th, 2010
• A glaring omission on Iraq - August 31st, 2010
• Employing a losing strategy - August 7th, 2010