"[Passenger trains] continued to operate across this potentially dangerous track without interruption," the FTA’s four-page directive was quoted by The Washington Post late Saturday.
It criticized the Washington Metro for prioritizing train schedule over safety and threatened to shut down all or parts of the service, according to the publication.
The first incident damaged a track after a third-rail insulator explosion early Thursday, spraying "fiery metal and ceramic projectiles" on the station platform, the newspaper cited the directive as saying. An operations supervisor performed "cursory inspection" and ordered the damaged track back to service, the directive argued.
Debris cluttered around the electrified third rail caused the second incident on Thursday that prompted evacuations and partial suspension of service.
Responding to the year-long rebuilding plan the Metro announced on Friday, an FTA spokesman said the plan "does not fully tackle many of the serious safety issues facing the system."
"[Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld] met with FTA this morning and is committed to implementing the new directives," the DC service’s spokesman said in response, without elaborating.
The newspaper adds that the FTA’s method of punishing Metro is to withhold up to $33 million of funding in the current fiscal year.
The FTA assumed control of Washington, DC’s Metrorail system in early October 2015. The takeover took place after its report that summer found the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) significantly understaffed, chaotic and filled with distractions.
On January 13, 2015, smoke at the Metro’s L’Enfant Plaza station killed one person and hospitalized dozens.
