May 7, 2010

Mr. Richard Sarles

Interim General Manager
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Jackson Graham Building
600 5th Street NW
Washington, DC 20001

Dear Mr. Sarles,

As discussed in our conference call with you yesterday during our first meeting as the TOC
Executive Committee, we were extremely concerned to learn of a recent incident that took place near
the Wheaton Station over 24 hours after it had occurred. From verbal reports from WMATA
provided to TOC staff and the TOC Executive Committee, we understand that at approximately 9:00
a.m. on Wednesday, May 5t h, a train operator initiated emergency braking when he became
concerned that the Automated Train Protection system had failed to properly slow the vehicle.

Given the potential for such an occurrence to contribute to a catastrophic collision, similar to the June
22 od , 2009 incident, this clearly represented an unacceptable hazardous condition. As the
transportation executives for the State of Maryland, Commonwealth of Virginia and District of
Columbia, we write to you personally to express our concern about two aspects of this incident, the
potential failure of the Automatic Train Protection system and WMATA's apparent internal and
external communications breakdown.

First, pending final findings and report of the NTSB, the June 22 0d incident occurred after a failure of
the Automated Train Protection system. It is absolutely essential that WMATA thoroughly
investigate such hazardous conditions under your agency's System Safety Program Plan. We ask
that you submit to the Tri-state Oversight Committee, no later than one week from today, a
comprehensive analysis of this hazard, to include documentation of steps taken since June 22 od , as
well as since the occurrence of May 5th , and any amendments or additions to future plans.

Second, we are gravely concerned at the apparent communications breakdown within Metro which
delayed notification of such a potentially high-consequence hazard until more than 24 hours later.
WMATA's System Safety Program Plan and the TOC Program Standard & Procedures clearly
require TOC notification within two hours of the identification of any hazard of this severity. A
delay of this magnitude significantly hinders the TOC's ability to carry out its mandated safety
oversight responsibilities, and is inexcusable. We ask, therefore, that you submit to the Tri-state
Oversight Committee, no later than one week from today, an assessment of the communications
problems which contributed to this delay, and a concrete plan for eliminating them.
Mr. Richard Sarles
Page Two

Beginning with today's inaugural TOC Executive Conunittee meeting, TOC leadership received a
thorough overview of the challenges faced by TOC and witnessed first hand the lack of appropriate
communication between WMATA and TOC. The TOC Executive Committee is deeply concerned
for the safety of Metro's riders and employees and call upon you to take reasonable and prudent
action to address the issues raised in this letter.

Oa i
5~ ~~__-=L1',- ~.-S
Sean T. Connaughton
Director of Transportation Secretary of Transportation
District of Columbia Commonwealth of Virginia
Beverley K. Swaim-Staley
Secretary of Transportalion
State of Maryland

cc: Tri-State Oversight Committee

WMATA Board of Directors