The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit held a joint hearing this week to examine the Washington, D.C., Metrorail's long-standing safety and efficiency woes.
U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA), the committee's chairman, and Rep. Sam Graves (R-MO), the subcommittee's chairman, issued statements prior to hearing testimony.
Shuster said the system receives subsidies from the federal government covering over 40 percent of rush-hour fares and that despite this, the system’s reliability and safety levels have fallen.
“The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is playing an important role as Metro’s temporary direct safety oversight entity,” Graves said. “FTA is here today to share with us what it is doing to promote safety and reliability at Metro.”
Testimony was provided by D.C., federal and other transportation officials. The hearing also looked at safety-related investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) going back to 1982.
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