“The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Transit Administration (FTA) today issued a Safety Directive 16-5 to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority  (WMATA) requiring the transit agency to address the serious safety concern of stop signal overruns in its Metrorail system by implementing 11 required actions and expediting completion of prior corrective actions approved by FTA. The Safety Directive is based on six significant findings set out in a Stop Signal Overrun Investigation Report also released today. The report includes findings from FTA’s spring 2016 “Safety Blitz” assessment of Metrorail and states that, although WMATA has taken steps to prevent stop signal overruns, the agency can do more to identify and mitigate the systemic deficiencies and operational concerns that allow these events to occur…”

• FTA Safety Directive 16-5 Stop Signal Overrun 08-15-16.pdf – Safety Directive 16-5 requires the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to address findings documented in FTA’s Stop Signal Overrun Investigation.