"Feisty" Board Meeting Ends With Nothing Resolved

When you read stories like this, you almost start to feel sorry for WMATA. Almost.

Apparently today's board meeting turned "intense" and "feisty," reports WTOP. Oohhh! Juicy.

The crux: disagreement on how to close the $29 million budget gap. Virginia appears to want service cuts and/or fare increases, while DC wants to use stimulus money.

The solution: wait two more weeks. Isn't that sort of like the reboot trick with a computer?

Gotta love it. Prepare for a further degraded system.

Metro is now essentially off-track when it comes to getting any potential service changes in place by the start of the next fiscal year.

Agency officials admit they will have to speed up the public hearing process, or implement any potential service changes later than first anticipated. That, in turn, could mean bigger changes are required.

WaPo's take

They Just Don't Get It

After Metro has had FOUR derailment incidents in TWO weeks, their spokesman tells WTOP "This is highly unusual."

Come again?

This guy should be apologizing to customers, and telling us ways Metro is going to avoid this in the future. He shouldn't be trying to spin the unspinnable!

I guess this guy doesn't use Metro either.

Oh, and that vacuum truck that derailed on the Orange Line two weeks ago--the wheels fell off, according to the story. The truck is still out of commission.

Metro is NOT Looking at Service Cuts

Reminder: avoid Pentagon this weekend!

According to this Adam Tuss story on WTOP, Metro is not looking at service cuts--yet. Last night the board held a meeting to discuss its $154 million budget shortfall. Here's the key quote:

"We are not talking about service reductions yet," Metro Board member Peter Benjamin said. "What we are doing is trying to find out how much might be needed, and see what other reductions might be made first so that we don't go out and say to the public that we need to make a change that we really don't need to make."

Say wha? Didn't Metro just spend the last couple of weeks getting everyone worked up over possible cuts? I guess the game plan was get everyone in a tizzy to rally support for the ailing mess of a transit system. That might work, but instead, we think it undermines broader support for WMATA in the long run, making Metro look repeatedly incompetent and mismanaged. It's especially dumb, we think, to play this strategy after almost non-stop boasting about how well the record inauguration crowds were handled.

According to The Washington Post story on last night's board meeting, "Metro staff workers have compiled a $325 million list of "shovel-ready" capital projects, including bus priority corridors, rail cars, buses and maintenance. Metro expects to make the list public next week at a regional transportation planning board meeting." This comes in anticipating of stimulus money the service could receive.

Quick hits:

• Apparently Metro accessibility played a role in DC United deciding to put their new stadium in Md. as opposed to DC.
• Interesting GreaterGreater article on how contributions to employee pension funds make up a large chunk of Metro's budget gap. The site calls for Metro to be "prudent," a trait we've never seen from the service.
• Oh and most importantly, Metro has posted a new audiocast.
  

Customer Service Test

Several readers have inquired about stories involving customer service--or lack thereof-- of Metro employees, and this piece by Adam Tuss on WTOP points out the good and the bad. We've not dealt with Metro employees enough to really have a sense of what level of service is typically out there, but we do know there there is a VERY verbose driver often on the Orange Line who is very concerned about the doors.

In our experience this is the only attempt I've ever seen Metro make to assess riders' opinion of the service.

We'd like to enlist your help. Next time you think about it, ask a station manager a simple question like 'how do I get to so and so' or if you can use the bathroom. Keep it simple, and report back to us what you find.

Avoid the Pentagon this weekend!

Photo: John Morris