From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Planning of SafeTrack Projects Description: Audio interview by GAO staff with Mark Goldstein, Director, Physical Infrastructure Related GAO Work: GAO-17-348: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority: Improved Planning of Future Rehabilitation Projects Could Prevent Limitations Identified with SafeTrack and GAO-17-519T: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority: Improved Planning of Future Rehabilitation Projects Could Prevent Limitations Identified with SafeTrack Released: March 2017 [ Background Music ] [ Narrator: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It's April 2017. When inquiries into Washington, DC's Metrorail system revealed a number of serious safety issues, Metrorail implemented the SafeTrack program. SafeTrack is a large-scale rehabilitation project that is supposed to address these safety issues, as well as the backlog of track maintenance. A team led by Mark Goldstein, a director in GAO's Physical Infrastructure team, recently looked at safety and oversight issues with DC's Metrorail. Sarah Kaczmarek sat down with Mark to talk about what they found. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] Those of us living and commuting in the DC area certainly have become very familiar with the SafeTrack program, but for folks outside the beltway, could you tell us a little bit more about this program? [ Mark Goldstein: ] Sure. DC's Metrorail is the second busiest metro in the United States. It takes hundreds of thousands of riders every day. The system was built a long time ago. Not as long ago as some of the older systems in America, like Boston or New York, but certainly, still, over 30 years ago. And so it has, over time, gotten a large backlog of maintenance projects. And these occur because of funding challenges, because of limited time to work on the track, and because at times there has been a lack of a safety culture that Metro has been criticized for. So, SafeTrack is an effort to try and improve the system in a very fast and reliable way in order to improve performance in the system, both for the tracks and safety, and for riders. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] Now, SafeTrack is already underway but what did your team find in looking at just how the project was planned? [ Mark Goldstein: ] So, we found that the planning the project did not go very well, that they didn't follow leading project management practices. For instance, they didn't collect information about the assets that they had and the impact that broken infrastructure would have on their projects. They didn't analyze alternatives for accomplishing these projects, looking at different ways they might approach SafeTrack. And they didn't develop a project management plan before they started, either. So, the problem was that without those kinds of policies in place, it was very difficult for them to determine before they began the project how best to accomplish it to meet their goals at the lowest possible cost. In their defense, they said the reason they had to approach it this way it was because there were critical safety issues that they had to address, but still, had they had a plan in place, many of the planning issues that they face probably would not have happened. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] So, given some of these issues with the planning, SafeTrack is underway. How is the implementation going? [ Mark Goldstein: ] The implementation actually has gone pretty well. SafeTrack has generally aligned with leading project management practices that they did put in place. They're developing lessons learned after every one of the surges. The surges are track-by-track to fix specific places where they feel the critical infrastructure issues still remain. And so, they've developed lessons learned that every time they've done a surge, it's worked a little better. And so, I think we've recognized that and I think the riders certainly appreciate that. But they have done a lot of work in SafeTrack. They've replaced tens of thousands of railroad ties and done a lot of other maintenance projects that really were necessary to upgrade the systems in this kind of emergency safety mode that they've been in. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] And how long do you think that they'll remain in this SafeTrack safety mode? Or when might that project wrap up? [ Mark Goldstein: ] They've already indicated that there are additional surges that will go forward; they haven't really said so much about how many there would be. But it's important to know that SafeTrack is just one part of the larger safety management program that they have underway, and that they have to do a better job in implementing. As I indicated, because of the funding problems that they've had over the years, there really is quite a backlog, only some of which really has to do with the SafeTrack. SafeTrack is really just for emergency kind of projects that they need to stay ahead of so that more track and more infrastructure doesn't fall into that category. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] And have they been able to get the funding that they need to fully invest what they're trying to do with SafeTrack, or has funding been an issue there as well? [ Mark Goldstein: ] Funding for SafeTrack has not been an issue. They were able to access funds that they had. But for larger projects going forward, WMATA has indicated that they do have significant funding shortfalls that they are going to have to address. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] Given all this context, what did your team recommend in this report? [ Mark Goldstein: ] So, we recommended that for future projects like SafeTrack and for larger projects, generally, in the safety area, that they put in place a number of different policies. These would include using detailed data on the condition of their assets in order to develop what their objectives are. You don't know what you have to fix if you don't know what it is that needs fixing. They need to compare alternative ways of doing it. There isn't just one possible way. They can look at different projects in different kinds of ways and they can align them together in ways that might make more sense, and then to do them on a case-by-case basis. It could take longer and not be as effective and not achieve multiple objectives, simultaneously. [ Sarah Kaczmarek: ] Finally, what do you see as the bottom line of this report, especially for all of our Metro riders out there. [ Mark Goldstein: ] Well, I think SafeTrack is showing that Metro is committed to safety and they are committed to a preventive maintenance program. How much they can do at any given time remains to be seen given staffing, tracking schedules, and funding that they have. They do need to fix their lack of comprehensive planning and they do say that that's something they're working on. And they need to work on their additional safety needs that go beyond SafeTrack to make sure that there is a safe Metro, a timely performance-driven Metro for all of the people in the Washington Metro Area. [ Background Music ] [ Narrator: ] To learn more, visit GAO.gov and be sure to tune in to the next episode of GAO's Watchdog Report for more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office.