Metrolink report urges safety guidelines

Metrolink needs to improve monitoring of its employees, enhance its safety technology and do more to inform its board members about how the railroad works, according to a safety report on the railroad posted Wednesday on Metrolink's website.

The major findings of the report were presented to the Metrolink Board of Directors in December. The report was written by a panel of industry experts whom Metrolink asked to review its rail operations after the Sept. 12 crash with a Union Pacific freight train that killed 25 people.

The panel noted that Metrolink staff needed to improve its oversight of the businesses that the rail carrier hires to run its trains. The panel also said that Metrolink board members need to be better informed about the railroad's operations.

In addition, the panel recommended that video cameras be placed in locomotives to monitor train engineers -- something employee groups have protested -- and called for the agency to adopt a GPS-based computer system to track the location of trains.

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steve.hymon@latimes.com