Photo by Adam Fagen.

The Federal Transit Administration is ready to carry a big stick and give Metro a good whacking as it assumes safety oversight for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

The decision follows “a number of accidents, incidents, and a demonstrated pattern of safety lapses and concerns with WMATA’s operations,” FTA Acting Administrator Therese McMillan writes in the safety directive.

FTA will take over direct oversight of the Metro system’s safety from the Tri-State Oversight Committee. The TOC has no legal authority to enforce any of its findings or recommendations. McMillan cites approximately 225 TOC findings and recommendations to improve WMATA safety that have gone unaddressed.

The FTA, on the other hand, can withhold or direct federal monetary assistance to WMATA. It will conduct inspections, examinations, testing, inspections and audits until D.C., Maryland and Virginia come up with a new oversight agency that has more teeth than the TOC.

Earlier this month, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx rejected a plan that would have handed direct control of WMATA to the Feds through the Federal Railroad Administration, which generally deals with train lines like Amtrak and MARC. Instead, the FTA is taking a more active role, making Metro the first subway system in the country that they are directly supervising.

Metro also announced today that it would be undertaking some self-examination as well. It awarded a $2.87 million contract to McKinsey & Company and Ernst & Young to conduct a 6-month review of its financial systems and management operations.