Sometimes government incompetence, while expected, still manages to astonish.
The WMATA, which attempts to operate the Washington, D.C., subway system (crediting it with actually operating the system would be too generous), is struggling to provide a sufficient number of train operators to drive a fleet that’s already missing 60 percent of its trains and serving only about 30 percent of the riders it served as recently as three years ago.
First came the revelation that nearly half of its train operators had lapsed safety certifications and were no longer allowed to operate trains. The WMATA thinks it will take two to three months to recertify the roughly 250 operators whose certifications have lapsed.
Now, we learn that the WMATA has been working operators up to 16 hours per day, possibly leading them to make major mistakes owing to fatigue. Jordan Pascale of DCist reports:
On Jan. 7, a train operator overran the Yellow Line platform at Fort Totten before opening the doors on the wrong side of the train for more than 90 seconds, according to a WMSC Commissioner brief. The operator didn’t report any of this to the Rail Operations Control Center and didn’t perform a mandated walk-around check after the incident. The operator was eventually removed from service at Gallery Place, the report states.
Seems pretty bad. Pascale continues:
Officials found the operator had been working long days: more than 15 hours on Jan. 3 and 16 hours on Jan. 6 — the day before the incident — putting them at increased risk for fatigue. The operator had just 6.5 hours before the next shift, which is less than WMATA’s policy of 7 to 9 hours of sleep between shifts. The operator reported feeling fully alert at the time of the incident and did not report experiencing any symptoms of fatigue.
Whether fatigue was a factor is beside the point. The larger issue is this: The WMATA has repeatedly, over decades now, demonstrated an inability to maintain its own safety standards, and its negligence puts riders at risk. This operator, by the WMATA’s own policies, should not have been operating that train.
On top of that, the train should not have an operator in it at all in the year of our Lord, 2022. The subway system was designed for fully automatic operation in the 1970s, and instead of progressing toward that technological goal (which is completely achievable, as other transit systems around the world demonstrate), the system has regressed to fully manual operation by unionized public-sector employees who can’t even maintain their safety certifications.
And all of this is happening to an agency that was bailed out with federal money three times over the past two years and still does not believe it will be anywhere near financially solvent without further infusions of taxpayer money going forward.
It should not be a mystery to anyone why more Americans don’t ride public transit. It’s run by incompetent government officials who are incapable of providing high-quality (or even adequate) service. Buying a car to avoid dependence on it is the reasonable thing to do.