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You have to wonder if WMATA face bankruptcy within the next few years if this continues?
I wouldn't call it bankruptcy, that would not be the right word for it. I can see the agency being dissolved and reconstituted from scratch. I think this is becoming a bi-partisan thing on the part of both DC, Maryland, Virginia and the federal government. Everybody sees the necessity of metro, and for it working, and see WMATA as a failed agency, and the best solution may be to replace it completely.
The metro system would not go away, people WANT metro to work and work much better, and they see the necessity. WMATA though may very well go away.
My guess is the system stays, WMATA as the management agency goes away. Likely replaced by a public-private partnership.
I agree WMATA should be broken up, and replaced by a more modern entity that pays 401(k)s, not these defined-benefit pensions which require constant fare increases.. Can also let the jurisdictions pick up more of the bus service.
The local jurisdictions DC, VA, MD and the Feds need to step up and fund Metro appropriately.
There have to be cost and management changes. They're not getting a blank check.
Personnel costs, including the pension plan, rose 9% this year in spite of decreasing ridership. Not to mention expensive PR consultants hired to explain away all the service problems.
Metro's biggest problem is.. and always has been.. their lazy, rude and incompetent staff who are grossly overpaid and basically bleeding metro dry while offering little value in return.
I saw a chart earlier this year that shows 80% of metro's expenses come from staff. Metro is not using the funding it gets properly. Obviously the staff is incompetent and overpaid. This is how it has always been at metro because of the lazy " bleed the Government" culture that dominated this area until very recently.
Now that DC is becoming a more mixed economy and more world class.. people actually expect things to work and work properly ALL THE TIME. Which is a shock to metro and its lazy, incompetent, moronic staff.
Fund the system properly. The other problems people imagine will vanish as the result.
The defined benefit pensions have to go, they are a relic which creates financial problems. Replace them with defined contribution, including the existing ones.
There is also how metro handles safety and repairs.
I completely agree the problem is the staff. It was used to much as a jobs program, but hired entirely incompetent and unprofessional people. It needs to be run more like a business at the end of the day. It's a people problem.
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