Passenger Trains > Transportation Secty Slams WMATA Safety Panel -- May Cut $$$

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/transportation-secretary-threatens-dc-va-md-funding-over-metro-issue/2016/02/08/fd190804-ce9f-11e5-88cd-753e80cd29ad_story.html?hpid=hp_local-news_metro714pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

In an October letter to Metro leadership, the acting FTA administrator, Therese McMillan, said that “it is no longer business as usual.”
“This is the strictest level of federal safety oversight ever placed on a rail transit agency,” McMillan said. She also sent a letter Monday, accompanying Foxx’s.
Despite that warning, Foxx said in Monday’s letter that he was disturbed by a recent announcement that they did “not expect to pursue” the creation of the oversight body.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/16 18:16 by hazegray.

Business as usual in Washington...

Any other transit agency or regional transportation agency thumbing its nose at Government oversight
would be getting their just desserts by now.  But this is Washington, DC and this is, after all, only safety,
which really doesn't matter all that much.

What is important is that we can't have anybody rocking the nice, comfortable boat that the bureaucrats
are riding on.

hazegray Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcom
> muting/transportation-secretary-threatens-dc-va-md
> -funding-over-metro-issue/2016/02/08/fd190804-ce9f
> -11e5-88cd-753e80cd29ad_story.html?hpid=hp_local-n
> ews_metro714pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
>
> In an October letter to Metro leadership, the
> acting FTA administrator, Therese McMillan, said
> that “it is no longer business as usual.”
> “This is the strictest level of federal safety
> oversight ever placed on a rail transit agency,”

So now they are on Double-Secret Probation!

> McMillan said. She also sent a letter Monday,
> accompanying Foxx’s.

Oh no, not a letter!  Why, if they fail to clean up their act, the FTA might follow up by sending them ANOTHER letter!  Quelle horreur!

If they were really serious, the FRA could find that WMATA is a railroad engaged in interstate commerce as part of the national rail system and regulate them the same way they do PATH.

>
> If they were really serious, the FRA could find
> that WMATA is a railroad engaged in interstate
> commerce as part of the national rail system and
> regulate them the same way they do PATH.

Good suggestion.

The odds are WMATA would take them to court, claiming an over reach. But it would be an exceptionally big stick.

Posted from Android

Intersate commerce doesn't put you under FRA, or St Louis Metrolink, and PATCO would be placed under it too. PATH is in it because of historical precedent.

What Foxx ought to do is cut off all FTA funding immediately.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/16 06:16 by joemvcnj.

I think the only thing that will "save" WMATA is a receiver with broad authority to hire and fire. That's the only way to change the culture and clear out the deadwood.

Paul Wilson
Arlington, VA

The relationship between board members and management has always been of interest.

In this case, the board failures mirror the sometimes dysfunctional relationship between the governors and the mayor over the years.

Posted from Android

The Beltway Answer is...

Do a S___ load of Coke, and carry an oxygen mask when you ride... I think wearing body armour for the stampedes would be a bit too obvious!

The WMATA board's alleged "new broom that sweeps clean" is Jack Evans, the longest-serving member of the DC Council, who has served on the WMATA board before, twice.

In a startling lack of historical awareness, a recent Washington Post article described Evans as a "newcomer" to the Board.

The business-as-usual farce will continue for a while longer, I'm afraid.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The relationship between board members and
> management has always been of interest.
>
> In this case, the board failures mirror the
> sometimes dysfunctional relationship between the
> governors and the mayor over the years.
>
> Posted from Android

Paul Wilson
Arlington, VA