WASHINGTON – Today U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) responded to the news that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has approved a Corrective Action Plan for improving safety on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) rail and bus systems. This announcement follows the June release of an FTA safety review that identified 54 specific overall safety violations across the WMATA system, and gave WMATA 90 days to develop a plan to address each of those findings.

“Today FTA approved WMATA’s plan to address 91 specific recommendations identified in a safety gap analysis released last spring. Today's news is a step in the right direction for improving Metro, and the next step is to make sure that each and every action item is implemented, maintained, and seen through to completion,” said Sens. Warner and Kaine. “But as this week's problems remind us, there is a lot to address and it will be a long road to recovery. Metro desperately needs strong new leadership to implement safety improvements, and we will continue to push for that process to conclude as soon as possible.”

Last month, Sens. Warner and Kaine along with Sens. Barbara Mikulski and Ben Cardin (both D-MD) introduced legislation to establish minimum safety standards for the operations of the nation’s aging transit systems and improve the way the WMATA board is appointed. That legislation would have required FTA to establish minimum safety standards in key operational areas, including evacuation procedures, emergency preparedness training, regular inspection programs for safe operation of track and mechanical systems, and more.