Metrolink peer review report - Ventura County Star

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METROLINK COMMUTER RAIL SAFETY PEER REVIEW PANEL Final Report – January 5, 2009 Issue Papers iv. Provide training for en-route vehicle troubleshooting for train and engine crews. This may be done by the mechanical contractor or by the transportation contractor’s properly trained staff or subcontractor. At a minimum this training must include recognition of and procedures to follow when encountering en-route running gear defects. Background When Metrolink service began, there was a single contractor with comprehensive responsibility for dispatching, operations, maintenance of way and vehicle maintenance. That contractor dispatched and operated the trains, provided customer service and maintained the vehicles, track, right of way and systems. The contractor was also responsible for coordinating these activities and responding to incidents. Metrolink’s role was confined to contract oversight. Over time, SCRRA has divided up the work within the scope of the original contract, taking dispatching and customer service in-house and executing separate contracts for transportation, vehicle maintenance, maintenance of way and signal maintenance. A side effect of ”unbundling” the scope of work appears to have made the responsibility for coordinating some activities and for managing interdisciplinary tasks more difficult. In interviews with SCRRA operations managers, the Panel learned that oversight of rules compliance has been executed in different manners between operational departments. In some cases, SCRRA personnel perform efficiency tests directly. This task may detract from the main function of oversight to ensure contractor compliance with approved operational testing plans. Conducting efficiency tests on contractor employees is a secondary function and should be structured as an evaluation of the quality of the contractors program. Interdisciplinary Tasks The Panel identified examples of areas in which the definition of responsibility for inter-disciplinary tasks could and should be sharpened. These were: testing; incident response and vehicle-troubleshooting training. Testing: It is essential to test whether employees are complying with the operating rules and are proficient in applying the rules. This process is referred to as Efficiency Testing. SCRRA must test its own dispatchers while the operations and maintenance contractors should have complete responsibility for testing their employees and for analyzing the results. SCRRA’s role in testing contractors’ personnel should be limited to oversight and auditing to make sure the testing is taking place by qualified testing officers, the testing is performed properly, and that appropriate corrective action is taking place. The distinction between testing, oversight testing and auditing is not currently clear in SCRRA’s procedures. Representative examples of this lack of clarity within the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) include: • SOP # 8 – Mechanical – SCRRA’s FRA-based Efficiency Testing Program assigns the Maintenance Contractor and Metrolink joint responsibility “to ensure that SCRRA and Maintenance Contractor are verifying that the equipment operators are following safe operating practices involving blue flag, radio rules, and observing the speed limit in the yards.” This task properly belongs to the contractor alone. The contractor should be performing the tests, analyzing the results, identifying deficiencies and correcting them. SCRRA’s job should be simply to oversee the process. The oversight may include field checks, but SCRAA field work should in no way relieve the contractor of its responsibility to implement a comprehensive testing program. 28
METROLINK COMMUTER RAIL SAFETY PEER REVIEW PANEL Final Report – January 5, 2009 Issue Papers • SOP #15 – Engineering – Operating & Flagging Rules give SCRRA’s Rules and Training coordinator the responsibility “to ensure that employees act in accordance with the General Code of Operating Rules (GCOR) for Maintenance of Way (MOW).” It is the contractor’s responsibility to test its own employees, review the data and trends, and take action to correct any deficiencies either through retraining, reassignment or removal; SCRRA should simply oversee the process to make sure it is being carried out effectively. Incident Response: When there was a single contractor for Operations and Maintenance, the contractor was responsible for responding to incidents such as vehicle failures in service, accidents and emergencies. Today, the responsibilities for responding to incidents, providing incident command, and directing service restoration after an incident belong to no one officially. As a matter of habit, the contractors’ Trainmasters (some of whom worked for the single-contractor operating Metrolink service at its inception) usually fill these roles; however, the transportation contract does not compel them to do so. Furthermore, the contractors’ staff may not be large enough to ensure a reasonably quick response to any incident. SCRRA should review these issues, clearly assign the responsibilities for incident response and make sure that there are adequate resources to fulfill the responsibilities. Contractual changes may be needed and/or changes in SCRRA staffing. Vehicle Troubleshooting: The train and engine crews are relatively unskilled in troubleshooting vehicle faults. Minor equipment problems can develop into unnecessary service interruptions while maintenance employees are dispatched to correct on-line failures. The mechanical contractor’s personnel could be effective in training the train and engine crews, but, because the contractor for transportation is not the same as the contractor for vehicle maintenance, this type of interdisciplinary support is uncommon. Metrolink service could be improved if the train and engine crews were more familiar with basic troubleshooting procedures. SCRRA may consider a mechanism for this type of inter-functional cooperation, perhaps through a well-defined QMP position. Resource Allocation The Panel noted that SCRRA recently addressed a key operational need by creating the position of Assistant Executive Officer, Operating Services. This senior manager should be responsible for allocating resources within Operations while the CEO, or his designee, should focus on allocating resources among non-operating positions and between operating and non-operating positions. It appears, however, that while the Assistant Executive Officer, Operating Services, has assumed broad responsibility for overseeing the day-to-day operation, the process of balancing the operating resources to reflect operational and safety priorities can be improved. The Panel observed that there is a need to have the organizational flexibility to reallocate SCRRA staffing resources to address safety critical positions. For example, the Operating Department could reduce the Field Service Representatives’ positions and add Trainmasters. SCRRA could merge the responsibilities of both classifications under the contractor. As part of this review, SCRRA should determine the responsibility for management of Field Operations and Incident Response. This responsibility is currently shared with the Transportation contractor, yet this responsibility is not part of the Transportation contractor’s contractual scope of work. In addition, SCRRA should consider the annual budget process as an opportunity to reallocate staff among functions on an ongoing basis. The budget process should not be limited to asking for more resources to address specific new needs. It should be a routine opportunity to reallocate resources to meet the Agency’s top objectives. As part of the Organizational Analysis, SCRRA should perform an internal staffing review to determine if the staffing levels and skills are sufficient to manage as an operating commuter railroad. 29
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Metrolink peer review report - Ventura County Star

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