Urban rail safety: Lessons from the US

The third level, or national oversight level (for example, the Federal Transit Administration of the US Department of Transportation) is important for providing technical assistance and capacity building for the planning, design, management and operating personnel of all systems in the country, conducting necessary research to address common needs, providing national benchmarking data and even performing periodic audits.

A second important general point coming out of the Washington accident was the need to pay more attention to keeping the entire system, not just the signal/train control system, in an acceptable, safe state of repair.

In 1986, when the Washington Metro was less than 60 percent its current size, a study was done by the federal government that addressed, for the first time the issue of what financial resources were required to maintain the system (whose first segment had opened only 10 years before) in a state of good, safe repair.

The study found that an average of approximately $200 million in constant 1986 dollars would have to be spent to maintain the metro and bus systems in a state of good repair. Unfortunately, local authorities were not able to follow up with the necessary funding.

In October 2010, the machinery on an escalator at a busy station failed and the escalator full of people went out of control downward, injuring many people, some seriously. Thankfully, this year's capital budget for Washington Metro is $1 billion, compared to an operating budget of $1.5 billion.

The interest of local authorities in building new, often glamorous infrastructure, while paying less attention to its ongoing maintenance, repair and replacement needs, is not unusual. In the case of Washington and elsewhere, it has led to many reliability and safety issues that could have been avoided. It is never too early to begin planning for the ongoing costs of maintaining the complex infrastructure, equipment, systems and machinery that comprise urban rail system.

Despite accidents in Beijing, Washington D.C. and elsewhere, by far the safest ways to travel in any city are on public transport, especially urban rail system. Accident, injury and fatality rates for urban rail are much lower than the equivalents for private cars.

Public transport safety will continue to improve if authorities and public transport companies take lessons learned seriously from the tragic accidents. The World Bank stands ready to assist - by bringing international knowledge and expertise and introducing international best practices.

Samuel Zimmerman is urban transport consultant, and Liu Zhi is lead infrastructure specialist with the World Bank.

(China Daily 07/15/2011 page9)

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