Metro-North faces tough fed report on safety culture

• Federal %22Deep Dive%22 report is expected to say Metro-North put on-time performance before safety.

WASHINGTON – Metro-North Railroad's emphasis on on-time performance at the expense of safety will come under fire from the Federal Railroad Administration in a report scheduled for release Friday.

The report, the result of the "Operation Deep Dive" investigation, is expected also to criticize employee training. It comes in response to the Dec. 1 derailment of a southbound Hudson Line passenger train as it neared the Spuyten Duyvil station in the Bronx, killing four and injuring dozens of other passengers. The locomotive connected to seven passenger cars apparently did not slow down as it headed into a sharp turn while nearing the waterway separating the Bronx from Manhattan.

Prior to the December accident, Metro-North already was under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board for two accidents in May on the New Haven Line in Connecticut. Those accidents — a May 17 derailment in Bridgeport and a May 28 fatal accident involving a foreman in West Haven where a new station was under construction — remain under investigation. A final report is not expected until May.

The recent spate of accidents has blemished the commuter line's reputation, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday.

"For decades, it was the crown jewel of commuter railroads in the country," he said. "Everyone looked to Metro-North. Has the culture of safety declined so dramatically that we need significant revisions here?"

Metro-North President Joseph Giulietti, who started his job Feb. 10, also reached the conclusion that the railroad had placed on-time performance before safety. He vowed to change the priorities.

But the problems have not stopped. A Metro-North track worker from Yonkers was killed this week by a train that had just left Grand Central Terminal and was headed north at 106th Street in Manhattan. That incident also is under investigation by the NTSB.

Schumer and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who jointly requested the new report, have scheduled a noon news conference at Grand Central to urge the Federal Railroad Administration to require Metro-North to act quickly.

"We need specific recommendations on all of the areas where Metro-North has messed up," Schumer said. He said he wants to know what the safety culture has been, whether workers are getting tired on the job, whether track signals are working and what track problems have occurred. "We need to know for Spuyten Duyvil exactly why they think it happened."

Last month the NTSB, which has nonbinding authority, issued safety recommendations to Metro-North in response to the Spuyten Duyvil accident, including "inward and outward facing audio and image recorders" and the installation of permanent signs warning operators of speed restrictions.

Staff writer Ken Valenti contributed to this report.