Federal Transit Administration Issues Directives to MBTA / Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities to Correct Safety Issues

https://www.transit.dot.gov/about/news/federal-transit-administration-issues-directives-massachusetts-bay-transportation

https://www.transit.dot.gov/regulations-and-programs/safety/special-directives-massachusetts-bay-transportation-authority-and

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

WASHINGTON – To improve safety for the Greater Boston Area's rail transit system, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Transit Administration (FTA) today issued a series of special directives to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) and the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU), the state agency responsible for safety oversight of the MBTA's rail transit operations.

A special directive is an order from the Federal government that requires an FTA-regulated transit agency or oversight organization to take immediate action on safety issues within a specific period. The special directives being issued today—four of which are being issued to the MBTA and one to the DPU—are a result of the FTA's safety management inspection of the MBTA that began April 14, 2022, following several incidents that resulted in one fatality and several injuries to passengers and employees on MBTA’s transit rail systems. These special directives require the MBTA, the MBTA Board of Directors, and the DPU to work together to remedy safety concerns and improve the MBTA's safety culture.

"Safety is our number one priority and must be the primary focus for the MBTA and the DPU," said FTA Administrator Nuria Fernandez. "Every transit passenger deserves a safe ride. Every transit worker deserves a safe workplace. The MBTA must immediately take action to improve its safety procedures for its passengers and workers."

FTA underscores that transit riders in the Boston area should not interpret the special directives issued today as a reason to avoid the MBTA subway or light rail. Rather, FTA's actions provide system-wide measures to fix longstanding issues with the agency's overall safety program and culture.

The four special directives issued to the MBTA concern:

• Operating Control Center staffing;
• General safety operating procedures;
• Delayed critical maintenance; and
• Lapses in staff safety certifications.

Each directive includes specific timeframes – ranging from 24 hours to 35 days -- for the MBTA to provide responses and take actions.  

The directive to the DPU affirms the need for the agency to enforce the special directives to the MBTA and address outstanding safety issues from FTA's most recent audit of the DPU. The audit, conducted in October 2019, resulted in sixteen findings, of which seven remain open. Those findings concern:

• hazard management;
• accident investigations;
• corrective action plans;
• and rules compliance.

FTA will provide technical assistance both to the DPU to enhance its enforcement role, and to the MBTA to help address the agency's safety issues. 

FTA's actions direct the two agencies to adopt system-wide measures to fix longstanding issues with the MBTA’s overall safety program and safety culture, including involvement of the members of the MBTA’s Board of Directors, who are the ultimate decision-makers for the agency, along with leadership of the DPU.  

FTA issued the directives as part of its oversight role and to continue to ensure transit remains the safest mode of surface transportation. FTA's Public Transportation Safety Program regulation lays out the agency's authority and process for overseeing and supporting transit safety, including issuing special directives.

Parts Salvaged from 1939 Portsmouth NH B&M Wreck

(SOURCE: By Alexander LaCasse alacasse@seacoastonline.com     http://www.fosters.com/news/20171210/pieces-of-lost-train-salvaged-from-piscataqua-river) 

PORTSMOUTH — Even after lying deep beneath the surface of the Piscataqua River for nearly 80 years, the rusted and decaying axles of a long lost iron horse, still give off a smell of industrial oil.

On the evening of Sept. 10, 1939, Boston and Maine passenger train No. 2024 left North Berwick en route to Boston with only 12 passengers and a crew of five. The train would never arrive.

According to author William Brooke writing in Volume 18 edition 1 of the “B & M Bulletin,” the train was crossing over a 100-year-old wooden trestle known as the “Portsmouth Bridge” and was 40 feet above the river. Brooke said barges used for the ongoing construction of the original Sarah Mildred Long Bridge were anchored to the bridge, which had already been weakened following a collision with a freighter in 1937.

“While crossing the old wooden bridge [...] a section of the structure collapsed. Engine 3666 and the first car – a wooden coach with open ends – disappeared beneath the swirling tide, drowning both the engineer and fireman,” Brooke wrote. “The train’s two remaining cars were abruptly and miraculously halted at the shattered brink when the brakes were automatically applied by the bursting air hose. Fortunately, no passengers or trainmen occupied the first car.”

The Portsmouth Herald reported in the Sept. 11, 1939, evening edition, “The train was traveling at about 3 miles per hour, officials said, which was the order for trains during the past several years because of the condition of the bridge. Only a few moments after the front section of the passenger train plunged into the water as though thrown from a catapult, the fireman was heard screaming for help as the incoming tide swept him upstream. Automobile lights were directed across the water in the direction of the screams but all witnesses said they could see was the splintered debris if the wooden bridge being swept towards Great Bay.”

The body of fireman Charles D. Towle, an Exeter resident, was recovered the next day around Dover Point and Somerville, Massachusetts, native and engineer John Beattie’s body was not found until 10 days later when it was found floating near the Back Channel.

Engine 3666, resting in its watery Piscataqua River grave, has captured the imaginations of history buffs all over the city, and now its story is being brought to a little more closure as a result of the new Sarah Mildred Long Bridge’s construction.

During routine dredging in March and mid-October this year for the construction of piers 17 and 18, which make up the center draw span on the bridge, wheels from Engine 3666 were dug up from among the debris.

Listen: This Day In History

Ron Taylor, Maine Department of Transportation resident engineer running the SML Bridge project, said in March construction crews dug up what was 3666′s pilot wheels and in October trucks from the locomotive’s coal tender were recovered.

“We were digging to meet the permitting requirements for the center piers and we discovered the wheels among the debris,” Taylor said. “There was no intentional effort by us to recover part of the train.”

Taylor said all of the train parts were being left on the New Hampshire State Pier and as the project continued along, the pier asked MDOT to consolidate their materials and the wheels were moved to nearby Albacore Park.

According to Taylor, the 18-foot tall Engine 3666 was moved in the 1960s to better clear the navigational channel and in the mid-1990s the train had to be moved again for the New Hampshire Port Authority’s pier expansion, but efforts to raise the locomotive to the surface were too costly.

However, now that pieces have been recovered, Taylor said the wheel sets will be donated to the Kittery Historical and Naval Museum and the other set will be stored at the Albacore Park through the winter.

“I would have loved to display them here but there isn’t much synergy between submarines and trains,” said Ken Herrick, president of the Portsmouth Submarine Memorial Association, which operates Albacore Park. “But, it’s a really interesting part of our history and I hope the city can find a way to showcase these wheels.”

Herrick said he offered the wheels at Albacore Park to the city and Economic Development Program Manager Nancy Carmer said she was in favor of incorporating the train artifacts into the new park being built along Market Street near the new Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, which is in “phase two” of the project and is included in the city’s capital plan.

“The pieces are certainly appropriate there, and we’re willing to learn more about the event and incorporate it into the future plans,” Carmer said. “It will be in addition to the natural and maritime features of the Great Bay estuary we are looking to showcase down there.”

The Kittery Historical and Naval Museum’s director Kim Sanborn said when the museum opens for the spring season visitors will get to see the wheels set up on a small rail spur local railroad buffs constructed for the display outside the museum facing Town Hall.

“Before the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, this was the main source of transportation across the river when the only alternative was to wait for a ferry in the days before the Memorial Bridge,” Sanborn said. “I’m very excited to be able to tell this story and it really puts the history into perspective when you have the visual component to the story you’re trying to tell.”

MM&A Railroad Executive Puzzled by Police Raid

(SOURCE:  By Eric Russell - Maine Press Herald - erussell@pressherald.com )  

Ed Burkhardt, chairman of the board of the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway, says he doesn't know why police raided the company's Quebec offices on Thursday, insisting that the company has been cooperating with police and federal authorites.

"If they asked for what they wanted, we would have given it to them," he said in a telephone interview Friday.

Quebec's provincial police raided a Canadian office of Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway in connection with its investigation into the July 6 train derailment that killed nearly 50 people.

There was no indication that the investigation has crossed the border into Maine, where Montreal, Maine & Atlantic is headquartered, or into Illinois, where its parent company, Rail World Inc., is located.

Burkhardt said he is unaware of any law enforcement agencies in the United States that may be involved in the Canadian investigation.

State and federal officials in Maine said they have not been contacted by Canadian authorities in connection with the criminal investigation by Quebec police.

Maine State Police spokesman Stephen McCausland said his agency has not been involved to date.

U.S. Attorney for Maine Thomas E. Delahanty II said his office has not been contacted by Canadian officials.

Provincial police released few details about the raid at the railroad's offices in Farnham, Quebec, about 40 miles east of Montreal, but police Inspector Michael Forget told reporters that officials were there to gather evidence.

"Our investigators were on scene ... to find different evidence that I can't comment on," he said. "This raid was done with the help of different partners. We'll be there until we have gathered all of the evidence that we need."

It's not clear what was seized. Photos taken during the raid show police carrying away unlabeled cardboard boxes.

No arrests have been made, and Forget did not say whether any additional searches would be conducted. He said employees of MM&A were cooperative.

The criminal investigation began shortly after the derailment and is separate from an investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which is looking into whether safety procedures were followed.

The Montreal, Maine & Atlantic train hauling 73 cars of crude oil was unmanned when it barreled into the small town of Lac-Megantic at more than 60 miles per hour, decimating several buildings and claiming at least 47 lives.

Cleanup is still going on and likely will continue for weeks. Colette Roy-Laroche, the mayor of Lac-Megantic, said Thursday that the railroad company has not paid the more than $4 million in cleanup costs. Roy-Laroche told Canadian media outlets that the town is considering legal action against Montreal, Maine & Atlantic.

The railroad company is also expected to face numerous lawsuits filed by survivors of those killed by the derailment. The first lawsuit was filed on Monday in Cook County, Ill., where Montreal, Maine & Atlantic's parent company is based.

The complainants have argued that the railway and its CEO, Ed Burkhardt, neglected safety rules in order to cut costs.

Burkhardt has laid blame on train engineer Tom Harding, alleging he "did something wrong" on the night of the crash.

Because the derailment occurred on rail lines owned by the Maine-based company, U.S. Reps. Mike Michaud and Chellie Pingree have called on federal officials to conduct a thorough inspection of the tracks. Federal Railroad Adminstration officials have been in Maine for the past week doing just that.

Pingree is married to S. Donald Sussman, majority share owner of the Portland Press Herald.

Michaud and Pingree have met with both the Federal Railroad Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, but neither agency has authority to bring criminal charges.

37 Hurt in MBTA Green Line Crash

37 Hurt in MBTA Green Line Crash Yesterday

One day before he was scheduled to receive a safety award, a Green Line operator at the controls of an outbound trolley slammed into a waiting trolley at Boylston Street Station Thursday. The crash sent 37 people to area hospitals with minor injuries and shut down service on the Green Line’s busiest section for about three hours, officials said.........

READ ARTICLE:  http://www.bostonglobe.com/2012/11/29/mbta/2YTVQB9JSfQhz9V4KasOgK/story.html