Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Deputy GM Rob Troup ordered four additional early-action safety items in response to the January 12 incident that occurred in a tunnel near L’Enfant Plaza Station earlier this year.

The additional safety measures were identified as part of Metro’s collaborative review with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation team, but are not to be misconstrued as formal recommendations from the NTSB.

Troup reported on the new safety actions during WMATA’s board of directors safety and security committee meeting and said that these actions will be taken using existing budget resources.

The four safety improvements Troup ordered are:

• Initiating a multiyear maintenance program to replace or rehabilitate all 88,044 lights in WMATA tunnels beginning next month.

• Creating a dedicated maintenance crew to continuously clear tunnel passageways of debris, equipment or other potential obstructions across WMATA's 100 miles of tunnel segments.

• Beginning this summer, review protocols of the alarms in the Rail Operations Control Center (ROCC) with the goal of separating critical alarms from non-critical notifications.

• Establishing a quality audit process for ventilation system testing to ensure compliance with established maintenance and testing practices.

Intended to improve emergency response and the system’s state of good repair, these four items follow the completion of ten early-action safety items directed by Troup shortly after the Jan. 12, 2015 incident.

The NTSB investigation remains ongoing and has not yet determined the cause or identified findings of the incident.