The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday identified ineffective safety management as a common theme to five Metro-North Railroad accidents over 11 months, including a train collision last December that killed four persons.
New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority operates Metro-North.
NTSB's revelations come as the MTA, one of the largest municipal issuers with $34.4 billion of debt as of Sept. 30, is looking to fill a gap of at least $15.2 billion in its capital plan.
The authority's board is scheduled to meet Wednesday.
"Seeing this pattern of safety issues in a single railroad is troubling," NTSB acting Chairman Christopher Hart said Tuesday at a news conference at Grand Central Terminal.
"The NTSB has made numerous recommendations to the railroad and the regulator that could have prevented or mitigated these accidents. But recommendations can only make a difference if the recipients of our recommendations act on them."
The federal agency launched investigations in the accidents, which occurred from May 2013 to March 2104.
Taken together, these accidents resulted in six fatalities and 126 injuries. They include the Dec. 1 derailment of a southbound train near the Spuyten Duyvil station in New York City's Bronx borough that caused four fatalities. The NTSB said a sleep-deprived operator was traveling at 80 miles per hour on a 30 mph curve.
Other mishaps included a May 17, 2013, derailment and subsequent collision in Bridgeport, Conn.; an employee fatality 11 days later in West Haven, Conn.; a July 18, 2013, CSX derailment on Metro-North tracks in the Bronx; and a March 10, 2014, employee fatality in Manhattan.
"This report confirms the concerns that I raised with Metro-North leadership regarding their business practices well over a year and half ago," said Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy. He said the state's Department of Transportation has been working diligently with the railroad on performance improvement strategies.
The NTSB plans to discuss the mishaps at a Nov. 19 meeting in Washington. It will also issue safety recommendations designed to improve railroad safety on Metro-North and other railroads.
Early this year, the NTSB made safety recommendations to the Federal Railroad Administration and to Metro-North that address some ongoing problems.
The capital plan, which the MTA must resubmit to the state's Capital Program Review Board, budgets $365 million for agency-wide safety measures, and a further $914 million in capital funds to install so-called positive train control and communications-based train control safety measures on all Metro-North and LIRR trains by December 2018 — still three years later than the deadline Congress set back in 2008.
On Monday, the MTA named former NTSB operative David Mayer to its new position of chief safety officer. He will report directly to authority chief executive Thomas Prendergast.
"Having someone to oversee and lead safety initiatives throughout the system can only enhance and improve our efforts," said Prendergast.
