After the Metro-North derailment that killed four people in December, the Federal Railroad Administration conducted a study on the safety of the MTA-operated commuter line. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they found that a “deficient safety culture” prevails on the rail system.
According to the New York Times, the federal administration found that workers are pressured to “rush when responding to signal failures, don’t have enough time to complete necessary repairs, and often talk on their cell phones while working.
“The findings of Operation Deep Dive demonstrate that Metro-North has emphasized on-time performance to the detriment of safe operations and adequate maintenance of its infrastructure,” reads the report. “This is a severe assessment, and it is intended as an urgent call to action to Metro-North’s leadership.”
The Metro-North must submit a plan to get safety measures back on track within two months.
(Photo: @MTAPhotos)
