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Right.... I take it's time to close this thread since some of you apparently are going in circles?
Oh and just because you feel strongly about your opinion, it doesn't turn it into a fact.
Yac.
You have to wonder if WMATA face bankruptcy within the next few years if this continues?
NO way, the Feds have recently taken it over. Metro is too big to fail (TM) like the banks are. Metro will become like the Post Office or the TSA if it has to. The city depends on it too much
NO way, the Feds have recently taken it over. Metro is too big to fail (TM) like the banks are. Metro will become like the Post Office or the TSA if it has to. The city depends on it too much
I think they would do better to learn from the NYC Subway, but Metro seems to have problems they don't have in NYC. I have followed the news about it a little and from what I know, Metro is having a very hard time finding someone to fix all their problems. They even tried to recruit an executive on the international scale, to find a subway system expert somewhere else in the world who could help them. Other cities that are on par with DC have much cleaner, safer, and more efficient subway systems than DC has.
i think they would do better to learn from the nyc subway, but metro seems to have problems they don't have in nyc. I have followed the news about it a little and from what i know, metro is having a very hard time finding someone to fix all their problems. They even tried to recruit an executive on the international scale, to find a subway system expert somewhere else in the world who could help them. Other cities that are on par with dc have much cleaner, safer, and more efficient subway systems than dc has.
That video IS the NYC subway.
The main problem with Metro is incompetence and corruption.
The main problem with Metro is incompetence and corruption.
Oops, I couldn't tell. I could tell it was an old video but didn't know where from... Oops.
I agree, I think they may be incompetent on purpose. The top management is probably trying to fail so they can get government bail out money. That's also why they keep raising fare prices.
Well also, they are basically running a jobs program so the train drivers have to work as bus drivers for a long time before they can drive the train and earn a shot at the nice pension money. Then once they are train drivers, they do the very bare minimum just to hang on until they can retire. They don't care about public safety, they care about their pension fund and other benefits.
The New Washington Consensus: bust up the unions, slash the pensions, cut worker salaries, "Right to Work" laws forever. Oh yes, that will do wonders for hiring competent, motivated WMATA staff. Pensions are the problem? Really? Multiple academic studies have shown that 401K retirement benefit systems have generated far more financial insecurity for professionals nearing retirement than pension-based contributions. Employees making 401K contributions are at the complete mercy of a volatile market where they do not have enough information to make wise financial decisions. If full-time hedge fund managers and Wall Street bankers make poor investment decisions then how is an average worker supposed to make the right call with his retirement savings? Oh...and many employees are getting ripped off with the outrageous fees by 401K investment firms.
One additional point. You know who is leading this anti-WMATA crusade? Northern Virginia and Maryland suburbanites. The ideologies of those complaining the loudest on Twitter, Facebook tend to have strong libertarian, pro-capitalist leanings. The kind of people who prefer labor to take a back seat to the interests of bosses and capital. The kind of people who want to privatize every public transit system in the United States just so they can shrink "government into the the size of a bathtub". When you see someone reading The Economist magazine on the Metro train, that is the person who I am describing in this post.
The suburbanites spewing their hateful bile against WMATA staff and labor unions happen to be white commuters. Shocker. Numerous characterizations of WMATA workers on social media have racist undertones. If one black WMATA employee shows poor customer service then ALL of them must be "lazy", "incompetent", "aggressive", "angry". God forbid that we should have BLACK, UNIONIZED labor making a middle-class salary with union protection and decent employee benefits. According to the privileged white professionals living in the suburbs; only people with college degrees and working in "serious" professions are worthy of such "comforts" like a liveable salary, full benefits and generous retirement packages. This is hierarchical elitism at its worst. No wonder why there are so many disastrous policies coming out of Congress and the White House these days.
WMATA service has declined steadily over the years with numerous elevator maintenance issues, faulty new train cars, deteriorating track conditions and so on. To pin all of these problems on rank & file WMATA workers is short-sighted thinking. Scapegoating union workers or black workers does not address the root cause of WMATA's failures. We need to examine decisions by upper management in WMATA, VA/MD/DC annual funding of WMATA operations and the overall federal government commitment to maintain safe public transit systems throughout the US.
The issue is math, not racism. Unless of course relations in this country have deteriorated to the point basic arithmetic is now "Culturally Insensitive". WMATA has a funding problem. Some of it is politics and unwillingness to pay, and some is unrealistic cost structures.
Personally, on a structural level the WMATA should devolve itself of all Bus services. Let DC pay for what it thinks it needs, Nova for what it needs and so on (Funded locally of course). Then, with being down to Metrorail, we can get to the brass tacks of assessing where the money is going and plug the gaps.
The issue is math, not racism. Unless of course relations in this country have deteriorated to the point basic arithmetic is now "Culturally Insensitive". WMATA has a funding problem. Some of it is politics and unwillingness to pay, and some is unrealistic cost structures.
Personally, on a structural level the WMATA should devolve itself of all Bus services. Let DC pay for what it thinks it needs, Nova for what it needs and so on (Funded locally of course). Then, with being down to Metrorail, we can get to the brass tacks of assessing where the money is going and plug the gaps.
Most of the money does to overpaid incompetent metro workers. At least 80% of WMATA's funding goes to paying its employees. I'm not exaggerating.
But good points. Maybe WMATA should only manage the subway and give the bus system to another agency to manage. The Circulator runs buses and will eventually run the DC streetcars without WMATA. Maybe they should take over MetroBus.
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