Amtrak Safety

Amtrak Should Implement Minimum Safety Standards for Passenger Cars Gao ID: RCED-93-196 September 22, 1993

Although Amtrak has issued maintenance standards for the condition of passenger cars, GAO found that Amtrak workers did not document either repairs or supervisory review of the inspection process. In addition, some standards were ignored when parts were unavailable or there was not enough time for repairs before putting a car back into service. Amtrak's financial condition has seriously affected the "backbone" of its maintenance operation--equipment overhauls. Revenue shortfalls and corresponding budget cutbacks for the past 2 years have forced layoffs in service personnel. As a result, about 40 percent of Amtrak's aging passenger car fleet will be past due for overhaul by the end of fiscal year 1993. When cars do not fully comply with the maintenance standards, Amtrak believes that as long as the deficiencies are not safety critical, it is better to keep the cars running than to cut service. The Federal Railroad Administration has issued few regulations governing passenger car safety and provides little oversight of Amtrak's passenger rail equipment.

GAO found that: (1) Amtrak's Mechanical Department is responsible for ensuring that locomotives and passenger cars meet FRA and Amtrak safety standards; (2) Amtrak standards have been incorporated into a system of procedures and controls to ensure that passenger cars are in compliance; (3) Amtrak controls are ineffective because Amtrak employees do not document repairs or supervisory review of the inspection process; (4) some standards are disregarded when parts are not available or there is insufficient time for repairs before a car is placed into service; (5) budget cuts have forced layoffs in overhaul personnel and caused Amtrak's passenger car fleet to be past due for maintenance overhauls; and (6) FRA does not have minimum safety standards for mechanical components on passenger cars because FRA officials believe this is an Amtrak-only issue that can be addressed informally.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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