MTA Says It’s Complying With Safety Audit Orders

In response to a stinging state audit that accused the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of shoddy maintenance and scores of safety problems, the agency has filed a report saying that it is complying with ordered remedies.

A 111-page audit, completed by the Public Utilities Commission’s rail safety division in November, found that the MTA’s railways failed to meet safety standards in 29 categories, a troubling outcome for an agency whose trains have been involved in 65 fatal accidents since 1990.

No passengers have been killed, and most of the accidents happened when cars or pedestrians crossed intersections illegally. The rate of fatalities and accidents has tapered somewhat in recent years as the MTA has put in new signaling systems and gates at many intersections on the Blue Line, which connects downtown Los Angeles and Long Beach and has had more than 95% of the accidents.

In its audit, the PUC, responsible for overseeing rail safety throughout the state, said not enough was being done to protect the public. It gave the MTA two months to respond.

MTA rail operations manager Gerald Francis said his department is doing all it can to answer the PUC’s concerns.

Francis said the MTA has recently satisfied many of the PUC’s requirements, and he promised that all of them will be fulfilled by May 30.

The fixes include changes in maintenance schedules and reworked policies on the number of hours drivers can work.

“We are making some real progress here, and we hope the PUC recognizes this,” said Francis, who took over as rail operations manager after the PUC’s auditors toured the MTA in the summer of 2001.

PUC director of rail safety Richard Clark said that his agency is pleased with the response, but will monitor the MTA monthly and do another audit in three years.

“We are going to have to continue to monitor to make sure they are doing the things they say they are going to do,” Clark said. “We are not accepting anything at face value.”