Federal officials warn MBTA to address worker safety issues

Runaway trains in track yards, near misses between trains and workers, and an employee hurt while working on overhead power lines on the Blue Line. Federal officials say the MBTA has to address worker safety issues, and do it fast — within the next two months.

And commuters are worried about what this means for them.

“We don’t need Band-Aids, we need the thing done safely for the people doing the work and the people who have to rely on these things every day,” said Brett Nichols, who rides the MBTA.

In a letter to MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng a federal official writes, “Given the immediate risk to worker safety on the ROW (right of way), FTA (the federal transit administration) requires direct and focused actions.”

They say a plan submitted by the MBTA earlier this month needs to be redone immediately because it includes fixes not scheduled to be complete until late this year, or next year. Federal officials say worker safety needs to be addressed within the next 60 days and longer-term actions can come later. If they can’t come up with a plan and comply with the federal requirements officials say they won’t allow workers onto the tracks.

In a separate letter, federal authorities approve of the Ts restructuring plan to focus on train safety issues but write, “FTA remains concerned about the staffing levels within the Safety Department.”

They say MBTA officials need to fast-track their efforts to staff it, and provide weekly updates to federal officials.

Riders are waiting to see what it means for them.

“Very slow, I’m from Europe and I don’t understand how the system works here because it’s really, maybe with a bike we’d go quicker than her so they really need to work on this,” said Noel Ones.

Federal transportation regulators are sounding alarm bells again over safety incidents at the MBTA, including one in which a worker was seriously injured, and ordered the agency to immediately change its protocols and training before an employee gets killed.

In a letter to new T general manager Phillip Eng on Tuesday, the Federal Transit Administration warned that there is a “substantial risk” of a death or injury on the agency’s tracks as dangerous close calls mount, citing recent incidents and reports of hazardous conditions from the T’s state oversight agency, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities.

“Given recent events, the results of FTA’s on-site inspections, reports from DPU, and the MBTA’s backlog of maintenance work which necessitates continued track access for work crews, FTA finds that a combination of unsafe conditions and practices exist such that there is a substantial risk of death or personal injury,” Joe DeLorenzo, an associate administrator and chief safety officer with the FTA, said in the letter.

Between March 13 and April 7, the MBTA has said, it experienced four “near-miss events” — a term the agency uses when a train gets dangerously close to workers. On April 13, an employee was “seriously injured while working on the [right of way] in a location where access had not been requested or granted — a major violation of MBTA’s [right of way] safety procedures,” the letter said. And on April 14, the MBTA reported a fifth near-miss incident, the letter said.

“The MBTA believes its strong emphasis on improving the organization’s safety culture — such as encouraging employees to report safety concerns — is a contributing factor in the increased number of reported incidents,” he said in an e-mail.

Pesaturo did not immediately respond to questions about whether the FTA’s requirements will delay elimination of the many slow zones bedeviling the subway system.

But the perilous conditions for workers on the T’s subway tracks and the newly required FTA overhauls could make much needed repair work more difficult. Around 25 percent of the MBTA’s subway tracks have defects requiring speed restrictions, according to the slow zone dashboard, up from around 8 percent on March 1, dramatically slowing commutes.

The FTA imposed a series of deadlines by which the T must comply with new requirements or else face a freeze on track work.

The first begins Thursday, when the FTA will prohibit the T from working on its tracks unless the agency submits daily updates about the work it plans to do, including “hazard assessments,” and then meets certain benchmarks through mid-June, the FTA said. DeLorenzo said the FTA will do unannounced inspections.

Then, starting on April 24, the T will be prohibited from doing track work unless the agency provides the FTA with an analysis of how many work crews can safely operate on each line, and reviews paperwork and communication processes, the federal agency said. The T must also get FTA’s approval for “work crew limits per line” that will remain in place until the transit agency “shows sufficient improvements in [right of way] access safety have been made.”

And lastly, by May 5, the T must submit an audit of its radio communications that ensure workers are safely on and off the tracks, as well as revised work protocols and training materials, the letter said. All employees will have to be retrained on the new protocols by June 15, the letter said.

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