Metro Crash

Obviously, it’s a bit ugly to talk politics in the wake of a tragedy, but since I cover mass transit issues here regularly I think it’s worth making a few points about yesterday’s terrible Metro crash here in DC:

— Fatal train accidents are national news stories precisely because they’re so rare. Deadly car crashes are a dog-bites-man story. Obviously, what happened was unacceptable but the fact remains that commuting by rail is very safe.

— Clearly, it’s important to do your upkeep work in a serious way. Metro is a relatively new heavy rail system, and a lot of its infrastructure has been reaching the end of its lifespan in the early 21st century, causing a lot of problems because maintaining the stuff has been neglected. One fears this kind of short-sightedness may have played a role here.

— Metro is strikingly lacking in any kind of redundant capabilities. The lack of extra tracks (for express train, e.g.) or additional lines through downtown creates a situation where a serious problem at one point can paralyze transportation throughout the city.

Beyond that, it would just be really nice to know what happened here. Metro has a number of systems in place that are supposed to stop this from happening.