Don't be surprised if Metro goes bankrupt within the next several years (Washington: landscaping, train)

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by Major Barbara

It would be a good idea if everyone overlooked the Washington Times as well. What a shock to see an unapologetic right-wing propaganda rag attempting to lay the blame for any and all Metro problems at the feet of blacks and unions. Talk about formulaic partisan nonsense.

There are no races or management teams that are going to be able to operate Metro successfully in the absence of adequate funding. Funding is the problem. Until funding problems are resolved, the rest is pointless diversionary babble.

Ah, Barb. Never shall anyone find fault with glorious WMATA! For it can do no wrong. In the other thread, you scoffed at a very minor story from WJLA on Metro delays. No analysis, you complained. Yet if there's analysis, you call it sensationalism.

You seem to be unwilling to acknowledge Metro ever does anything wrong. Any problems can only be due to not enough money! I mean--seriously?

I voted for Obama twice and normally would never read the Times. (In fact, I complained to the head of my old agency when the uber-partisan Examiner was distributed in the lobby of the building, which I thought could be construed as official endorsement of a political message from agency senior leadership.).

But just because the Times has a partisan editorial page doesn't mean it's always wrong on issues of fact. Read the first two paragraphs of the story:

Ninety-seven percent of the bus and train operators at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority are black, with only six white women out of more than 3,000 drivers, according to Metro documents — a lack of diversity at one of the region’s largest employers that has led to an acknowledgment of failure in affirmative-action documents and spawned a series of lawsuits.

I don't care what paper it's in; if those facts are true, there's a major, systemic problem at Metro. Just as an almost-all-white police force in a heavily black city is a problem, so is a nearly all-black public workforce in a diverse city with many people of all races who would be glad to have those jobs.

The homogeneity, interviews with dozens of current and former Metro workers indicated, is a proxy to a clubby culture of favoritism in which merit has little to do with promotions, and accountability, such as noting safety violations, is a career death knell. In typical examples, court and Metro records show, a black man who spent eight years in prison for dealing PCP was promoted to a high-level management position soon after his release, and whites in the same positions as blacks with far less seniority are inexplicably paid less.

Do I really need to point out that this is a bad thing? By all means, if you have evidence that the above assertion is false, then please provide that.

[Old Guard]

Originally Posted by Major Barbara

You don't HAVE a case. You have shop-worn rant and nonsense.


What exactly is wrong with the management structure? Metro has a Chairman and a Board and departments and department heads. Just like thousands of other organizations and entities. What they DO NOT have is adequate funding.

Do you have no problem with racism in the workplace or do you have evidence that the statistics in the article are wrong?

[tysonsengineer]

Major Barbara is pretty much what is wrong with WMATA. Head in sand.

Sarles said they spent 5 billion dollars addressing track problems during his tenure. Not 1 year after he was gone it became evident than less than HALF of what they said they fixed actually was fixed to spec and requirement.

Essentially, billions of dollars were wasted on the orders of NTSB, and nothing was fixed. The smoke incident? Improperly installed 3rd rail covers.

This all goes back to a lack of rider accountability. WMATA is accountable to the board. The board is accountable simply to the politics and political bodies which appoint them.

No one can be held directly accountable BY the riders. And that is the problem.

It is a political football, not a transportation system. On the left we get WMATA the employment and social justice system. On the right we get WMATA the punching bag serving as a indictment on all government spending.

The reality exists in between these two completely disconnected and perverse adaptations of mass transit. We need to properly spend the limited government dollars to create the greatest benefit in MOVING PEOPLE and we need to spend more considering how much we waste to get the same objective via roadways in this country.

EXHIBIT A

We spend so much on operations, and we paid more last year for raises at WMATA, despite a DROP in revenue and fewer people riding metro. In any other industry if you are failing to deliver on prime directive 1 (ie sell widgets, deliver services, etc) you don't end up with a nice pay raise.

EXHIBIT B

Other countries that have good transportation networks spend much more on transit and much less on highways and roadways as a whole. By spending more, they don't have half-assed transit networks, they have beautifully run, managed, and operated systems that are seen as a prestigious place to work for many engineers, train mechanics, electricians, etc. Consider this, would you rather work for Dunder Mifflin or Google? Corporate culture and the overall morale of an organization can be contagious.

So to answer your question Carlingtonian

The reality is, we both need to completely change how WMATA is run AND spend a hell of a lot more. Do I know a prescriptive means that we can fix it? No. Every organization is different. A couple of ideas would be to look at the role of the board and whether they actually serve rider interest or have in anyway improved performance at WMATA (I would argue they do not and largely the board position has become a political launching pad for many).

Secondly I would look at operation costs, we are running about 80% of the trains that we planned on running based on the 2014 budget... yet the operation cost remains at full spending... so are we paying a bunch of ghost employees? There should be a metric to measure whether WMATA is overstaffed, based on mileage of actual transit service.

Either way, it won't take one solution. Privatization by itself is no solution, but we need to start looking at the role of how WMATA has been set up, and what the resultant has been with regard to the operation of WMATA.

[gomason]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

Ah, Barb. Never shall anyone find fault with glorious WMATA! For it can do no wrong. In the other thread, you scoffed at a very minor story from WJLA on Metro delays. No analysis, you complained. Yet if there's analysis, you call it sensationalism.

You seem to be unwilling to acknowledge Metro ever does anything wrong. Any problems can only be due to not enough money! I mean--seriously?

I voted for Obama twice and normally would never read the Times. (In fact, I complained to the head of my old agency when the uber-partisan Examiner was distributed in the lobby of the building, which I thought could be construed as official endorsement of a political message from agency senior leadership.).

But just because the Times has a partisan editorial page doesn't mean it's always wrong on issues of fact. Read the first two paragraphs of the story:



I don't care what paper it's in; if those facts are true, there's a major, systemic problem at Metro. Just as an almost-all-white police force in a heavily black city is a problem, so is a nearly all-black public workforce in a diverse city with many people of all races who would be glad to have those jobs.



Do I really need to point out that this is a bad thing? By all means, if you have evidence that the above assertion is false, then please provide that.

You can argue homogenity is bad and I wouldnt necessairly disagree but discounting someone for dealing drugs once in their life doesnt make them a terrible person. I guarantee you know I know at least a couple felons who are more than deserving of their pay. No offense to you but they have probably created more jobs than you will ever create in your life.

[Major Barbara]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

Ah, Barb. Never shall anyone find fault with glorious WMATA!

Grow up, Carlie. There are plenty of problems at Metro, and they are all tied up in a lack of proper funding.

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

I don't care what paper it's in; if those facts are true, there's a major, systemic problem at Metro. Just as an almost-all-white police force in a heavily black city is a problem, so is a nearly all-black public workforce in a diverse city with many people of all races who would be glad to have those jobs.

Would you agree that the overwhelming majority of applicants is black, or do you contend that Metro is deliberately denying jobs to non-black applicants? Go ahead. Give us your latest bit of rapes-at-Courthouse analysis here.

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

Do I really need to point out that this is a bad thing?

At this point, I don't even care what you think you are pointing point out. Your value as a source of information is stuck on nil.

[Major Barbara]

Originally Posted by Old Guard

Do you have no problem with racism in the workplace or do you have evidence that the statistics in the article are wrong?

There are dots that you have not connected.

[tysonsengineer]

Major Barbara still arguing that McLean metro station isn't in Tysons? You never cease to astound me when it comes to being wrong. Your one statement here

"There are plenty of problems at Metro, and they are all tied up in a lack of proper funding."

Is so devoid of analysis it is painful for someone like me who actually follows WMATA's struggles to sit back and allow it. You are uneducated on the subject. Perhaps you should go back through the past 10 years and review the operation and capital expenditures budgets of WMATA. Then do the same on a per rider basis. Then do the same on a per train mile basis.

What you will find is

1) Spending went up and it went up significantly

2) Spending per rider actually went up FASTER as a rate than general spending went up. IE they spent more per person as the increase in funding occurred.

3) Spending per train mile went up THE FASTEST as a rate, ie their cost to run a train per mile skyrocketed despite the sourcing of additional funds.

Metro needs more money, but it also needs to take that money and spend it right. Think about what that 5 billion dollars that disappeared after the 2009 crash SHOULD have done to track improvements and reliability. The problem here is, I doubt Maj Barb is even a metro rider.

Metro riders are the ones caught in the middle of all this, between those who are blind apologists and those who are blind confronters. And those who are supposed to be the stewards of the system, ie the Board and politicians of our area, are driven around in the black expeditions. They never step foot on metro. That is the true problem. Get those in charge to be required to take it, and it would be fixed in a month.

[Major Barbara]

Originally Posted by tysonsengineer

Major Barbara is pretty much what is wrong with WMATA. Head in sand.

I'll not bother to tell you again where yours is.

Originally Posted by tysonsengineer

Major Barbara still arguing that McLean metro station isn't in Tysons? You never cease to astound me when it comes to being wrong.

LOL! Recalling your past humiliations is not much of a defense against the most recent one. And of course with those severe head-location issues, you've managed to confuse the decades-old Commons Safeway with the quite new McLean Metro station. Simple mistake...anyone could have made it. LOL!

[Old Guard]

Originally Posted by Major Barbara

There are dots that you have not connected.

Originally Posted by Old Guard

Do you have no problem with racism in the workplace or do you have evidence that the statistics in the article are wrong?

[Major Barbara]

No dots connected. You see a majority black workforce, and you immediately arrive at the knee-jerk conclusion that racism is the cause. Do you believe that it's racism as well that is excluding white folks from front-line jobs in the lawn and landscaping industry? Have you surveyed area dry cleaners lately?