DC area subway system on verge of shutdown due to incompetence (interstate, interviews)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I used to ride the Metro every day for a while in the late '80s and was always impressed with its operation. But now...
Quote:
The Federal Transit Administration, citing Metro’s botched response to Thursday’s fire at the Federal Center SW station, on Saturday issued a series of emergency directives to the transit agency and threatened to shut down all or parts of the nation’s second-busiest subway unless it took “urgent action” to ensure passenger safety.
In its toughest measures since it took over direct safety oversight of Metro in October, the FTA ordered daily inspections for “hot spots” and water leaks along tracks, as well as reductions in the number of railcars in service and slower speeds for trains so less power is used. It also demanded a “safety stand-down” so that all Metro staffers can be retrained in proper procedures.
This is one case where a lack of diversity may actually be at the heart of the problem.
Quote:
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.
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...
Being from D.C. I could tell MANY stories like the ones you have posted.
How can 97% of drivers be black? How is it that the train system serving the capital of the world's only superpower could be coverted into an African American jobs program and nobody complained?
How can 97% of drivers be black? How is it that the train system serving the capital of the world's only superpower could be coverted into an African American jobs program and nobody complained?
Great. Another thread blaming the breakdown of infrastructure on the people maintaining it just because of their skin color. How about considering stifling those people by eliminating the funding required by all complex systems to keep them running? the system broke down because it was being looted by neglect so the money could go to more lucrative but less needed projects.
Money spent on new developments or projects goes to private contractors but the maintenance money goes to civil service employees and is considered wasted by the big donors. For instance Boston spent over a billion dollars creating the Big Dig that made some contractors very wealthy while benefitting the suburban car commuters while allowing the Mass Transit MBTA System to molder into decay. Driving through the Big Dig is the best of the 20th Century. Riding the MBTA is the best of the 19th Century.
Great. Another thread blaming the breakdown of infrastructure on the people maintaining it just because of their skin color. How about considering stifling those people by eliminating the funding required by all complex systems to keep them running? the system broke down because it was being looted by neglect so the money could go to more lucrative but less needed projects.
Money spent on new developments or projects goes to private contractors but the maintenance money goes to civil service employees and is considered wasted by the big donors. For instance Boston spent over a billion dollars creating the Big Dig that made some contractors very wealthy while benefitting the suburban car commuters while allowing the Mass Transit MBTA System to molder into decay. Driving through the Big Dig is the best of the 20th Century. Riding the MBTA is the best of the 19th Century.
You're right GregW, it has nothing to do with race and everything to do with being govt. run as your examples further illustrate.
The problem is not with the employees but with the government being under control of the business sector that will not spend the tax money needed to maintain the projects. Having private ownership does not change this. the subways of NYC were built by private capital but were so neglected by their owners the system was eventually sold to the government of NYC because the private owners refused to maintain it. They made their money for the first years them passed the wear and tear cost to the taxpayers instead of their stockholders. If you want to see neglect just look at a private industrial installation that has stopped making money.
The Big Dig will eventually fall apart just like the rest of our Interstate system because the government will not charge the users that do most of the damage enough to repair that damage. We will never see truck fuel or road use taxes high enough to make those privately owned users pay for maintaining the system that makes them money. I, as a car driver that does not damage the roads at all, resent having to subsidize the giant trucks that menace everything else on the road.
You're right GregW, it has nothing to do with race and everything to do with being govt. run as your examples further illustrate.
Please... the government runs thousands of things that don't literally catch fire and burn like the Metro. There's general government ineptness and then there's the weapons grade incompetence of places that reelect mayors even after they are convicted on crack concaine charges.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
