Photo by John Sonderman.

Despite a Metro system in such disarray that even the interim general director called it a “low point” yesterday, the federal government won’t ramp up oversight.

In no uncertain terms, the National Transportation Board said last month that the current oversight system for Metro is inadequate and recommended that the Federal Railroad Administration (which typically oversees freight and passenger lines, such as Amtrak and MARC) take over from the Federal Transit Administration. That would give feds direct oversight, rather than the toothless Tri-State Oversight Committee, which is set up according to FTA rules. For a city that has never jumped at the thought of more federal meddling, the recommendation was generally cheered.

But U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx rejected that plan yesterday, The Washington Post reports.

“The NTSB is not wrong to assert that urgent action is needed; we just believe that there is an even more effective and faster way to achieve the safety goals we all share,” Foxx spokeswoman Suzanne Emmerling told the Post. “[The Transportation Department] does not believe that the NTSB recommendation is either the wisest or fastest way to bring about the necessary safety improvements”

Instead, they plan to strengthen local oversight of the transit agency. The FTA acknowledged that the TOC “has been ineffective” and said they are “prepared to take aggressive steps to ensure [Metro] has appropriate safety oversight.”

Meanwhile, a member of Metro’s board of directors seems unaware of how Metro’s fare structure works. At a meeting yesterday of the board’s finance committee, she asked to clarify if the system still charged according to distance in off-peak hours (as opposed to flat fares in place in New York City). Even the Post couldn’t hide its disdain:

“So first of all,” she said, “remind me: We are still doing distance pricing in the non-peak on rail, right?”

Uhh … yeah.