After a series of runaway train incidents, the MBTA is being ordered to stop any worker who hasn't attended a safety briefing from moving its train cars in yards or shops.
The safety stand-down is being required by the Federal Transit Administration to go into effect after midnight Saturday. In a letter to the MBTA dated Thursday, the agency cited "a continued failure to sufficiently prevent unintended and uncontrolled train movements by disabled trains."
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There have been three runaway train incidents since the end of May, including on Monday, and the FTA called them "exceptionally dangerous" events, even if the three in question didn't result in anyone being hurt.
During the stand-down — a period when staff and supervisors gather to discuss an issue that affects worker safety — any worker who might have to operate or secure a disabled train car or other transit vehicle will have to review what happened in Monday's incident on the Red Line, as well as two other incidents on May 28 and May 30, the letter said.
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An MBTA representative said in a statement it "is taking steps to execute the immediate actions required by the FTA. Fully supporting the FTA's ongoing scrutiny of safety-related processes and practices, the MBTA is committed to providing the training and tools necessary for employees to create and maintain a culture in which safety is prioritized."
Hundreds of MBTA employees will be getting the roughly 15-minute briefing, the representative said. They'll be held when shifts begin and during breaks, and the agency expects that there will only be little disruption to service.
The MBTA must give an update on the safety briefings every day starting Monday until every worker who needs the training gets it. Attendance at the meetings must be tracked.
The FTA is also requiring the MBTA to prepare a checklist for coupling and uncoupling cars that workers will have to follow.
The MBTA has been under a rare FTA safety review for months following a series of high-profile incidents like crashes, derailments and a passenger being dragged to death. The federal agency has already issued several special directives requiring updates on safety and staffing issues, but has yet to release it's final report; hearings in Washington are expected as well.
Since the announcement of those directives — in areas like safety operating procedure and deferred maintenance — the MBTA has experienced several high-profile problems, including a fire on an Orange Line train last week that required about 200 people to evacuate over the Mystic River.
In Monday's runaway train incident, a train set of two cars rolled north out of the Braintree rail yard about 800 feet before the morning commute.
A train operator heard on an emergency MBTA call could be heard yelling, "I need help!"
The NBC10 Investigators obtained video of the May 30 runaway train incident, when four Red Line cars detached in a rail yard and rolled backward through Braintree Station before eventually coming to a stop on its own after traveling a half mile. In one clip, a man and a girl appear to look confused about why the train did not stop for passengers.
While the three incidents mentioned in the FTA's letter have involved out-of-service trains with no passengers on board, federal officials say incidents like these could end in collisions, derailments or even loss of life for anyone in the path of one of these trains.
“Safety is very important to me because I don’t want anything to happen to me or any of my friends,” said T rider Shelly Calvaire.
“I don’t feel safe to be honest with you,” Lara Pierre, a regular on the T, said, while noting that she’s surprised runaway trains are even an issue. “With all the technology we have and how we have evolved so much, I think it’s kind of ridiculous we still have a runaway train concerns.”
“Well clearly it’s either a run of very bad luck which happens in life or it’s a combination of bad luck and inadequate training or inadequate attention to detail,” said Jim Aloisi, former Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation. "I would imagine after this FTA initiative there won’t be any inattention to detail and the training will be revived and enforced.”
The MBTA has so far met the deadlines and requirements set by the FTA and is working on long-term plans to correct problems. Boston's transit agency has already put new policies and training in place around moving trains at rail yards, and it's working on increasing staffing levels at the yards.
The FTA has issued stand-down orders before, including to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in 2016. About two weeks after that order was given, the U.S. Secretary for Transportation ordered a special advisor to help oversee the D.C.-area subway system.
The State House News Service contributed to this report.
