Verifying The Safety-Readiness Of A Rail Transit Project For Public Opening

摘要

This paper provides insights into the safety certification process on a rail transit system. It may be useful to other transit agencies or organizations that are planning, implementing or modifying their safety certification program. The safety certification process verifies and documents that a start-up rail transit project is safe to open to the riding public. It begins in design, and continues through construction, testing, and startup. In Los Angeles, the recent grand openings of the Metro Green Line and Metro Red Line Segment 2A were successfully safety certified by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). In both cases, early coordination with all involved agencies and individuals was a key to the success. (Two follow-on extensions to the Red Line are planned to open later this year and in the Year 2000.) Several entities are involved in the MTA rail projects. The General Engineering Consultant who designs the project, the Construction Manager who manages the construction, specialty consultants who provides input on their area of expertise, fire services who enforces code requirements, the Public Utilities Commission regulator who oversees safety, and MTA Construction and Operations staff who jointly works to open each project successfully. The sheer number of agencies and individuals involved necessitates early coordination of tasks and responsibilities. Several disciplines are reviewed for safety certification. As practiced on the Los Angeles MTA rail projects, the safety certification program covers several areas as discussed in the report: 1) Design 2) Construction 3) Integrated Testing 4) Contractual Training 5) Emergency Response Training Drills 6) Passenger Vehicle 7) Fire/Life Safety 8) Operations Several areas for improvement are identified as lessons learned. These lessons learned targets program implementation issues, based upon the experiences of four project openings. Among the subjects addressed in this report are: 1) Early definition of the safety certification program. 2) Use of an easily understandable, effective and agreeable program. 3) Dissemination of the program requirements to involved participants and nurture program support. 4) Solicit management support of the program. 5) Monitor the program and obtain feedback. 6) Modify the program as necessary to meet objectives. 7) Prepare for setbacks and potential work-arounds. 8) Identify absolute need dates for work. 9) Be flexible. The lessons learned from each grand opening present opportunities for refinement on future projects. In Los Angeles, safety certification is evolving into a more comprehensive and effective process based on these lessons learned. Information is discussed that may benefit other transit agencies facing upcoming rail start-ups.