Metro riders encouraged to use phones to report safety concerns

The number of Metrorail fires is holding steady or trending higher, according to data from the first three months of the year. (WTOP/Dave Dildine)

Monitoring social media is one way officials discover something isn’t safe on Metrorail. That’s how a train running with an open door came to light last May.

“What we’re interested in as an organization is genuine safety concerns,” Washington Metrorail Safety Commission CEO David Mayer said.

The commission would like to hear about issues that relate to the safe movement of trains or the safety of people in the system. People can report safety concerns by clicking on the Report Safety Concerns on the Metrorail Safety Commission’s website.

“If you’ve got something that’s in that lane, feel free to click that button and tell us about it, we’ll follow up on it,” Mayer said.

Whistleblowers can remain anonymous, but Mayer hopes they wouldn’t mind being contacted by commission officials if needed.

“Leave us contact information. We can get back and ask any clarifying questions, and we also can let them know what the resolution was,” he said.

“Depending on the nature of the concern expressed we may either decide to conduct focused inspections, or oversight activities,” Mayer said.

“Or, we may pass the concern along to WMATA and under our oversight, look to them to vet it and take corrective action where that’s necessary.

Kristi King

Kristi King is a veteran reporter who has been working in the WTOP newsroom since 1990. She covers everything from breaking news to consumer concerns and the latest medical developments.

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