Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Washington Metro Pork-a-Palooza

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-11, has coaxed the U.S. House of Representatives into passing a bill that would funnel $1.5 billion into the Metro transit over the next 10 years as long as Virginia, Washington, D.C, and Maryland promise to match the money.

Unless there are critical elements to the legislation that Washington Post reporter Lena Sun is overlooking in her story today (a possibility not to be overlooked), Davis is not tying the subsidy to any new measures that would ensure performance or accountability.

“For years,” Sun explains, “Metro’s leaders have appealed to local governments to provide a steady, consistent flow of money so the transit system will not have to compete with other public needs, such as education.” A consistent flow of money. Sounds eminently reasonable, doesn’t it?

Here’s the question: How will Metro management and unions respond to the knowledge that they have a “consistent flow of money” for the next 10 years? Will the knowledge electrify them with a surge of creativity and innovation? Will management make the hard decisions? Will workers relax their demands for higher-than-market compensation and featherbedding work rules? Or will the entire organization slack off, perpetuating scandalously poor management of past decades, knowing that Metro is accountable to no one — not the marketplace, not even the politicians.

Congress may be crazy enough to pass this legislation, and President George W. Bush hasn’t shown any inclination to veto anything that entailed spending more money (except for stem cell research). But the deal is contingent upon the states contributing their share. That puts Virginia in a position to nix the deal if performance and accountability measures aren’t built into the package. Metro is a critical piece of Northern Virginia’s transportation infrastructure, but that’s all the more reason to insist that Metro get its act together.

Update: Examiner.com has an excellent editorial on this topic. Money quote: “Here’s a better idea: Stop subsidizing the waste and mismanagement inherent in an obsolete 1950s mass transportation concept, and force Metro to cut costs, become more efficient and undertake a crash course to learn how transit systems around the country are using competitive contracting to ease burdens on taxpayers while improving service to customers.”

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

Comments

5 responses to “Washington Metro Pork-a-Palooza”

  1. Virginia Centrist Avatar
    Virginia Centrist

    “Metro is a critical piece of Northern Virginia’s transportation infrastructure, but that’s all the more reason to insist that Metro get its act together.”

    What would that entail?

    Improving service? What service? You enter and exit a train with zero human interaction.

    Improving delays? How do they do that? It’s a flawed system. They can’t expand it. As dense localities continue to build infill, the crowding/delay problems will continue.

    Cleaning up the stations? Metro is the cleanest rapid transit system in the nation.

    Crime? What crime.

    Where is Metro failing? Are they embezzling money? Are they over budget? Perhaps that’s because they aren’t given enough money to deal with the current load of commuters that demand service? Possibly?

  2. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    It is a great system, as far as it goes, and for what it does.

    It would be nice to have escalators that work. A guaranteed seat would be nice. What other form of transport do you use standing up, and without being strapped in, other than walking?

    It would be really nice to have a steady flow of money and no accountability, too.

  3. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Virginia Centrist, You ask where Metro is failing. I would refer you to the series that the Washington Post ran last year on management problems at Metro.

  4. Virginia Centrist Avatar
    Virginia Centrist

    Anon: Seats? How can you have seats when you’re at capacity and can’t add trains?

    Jim: I’ll take a look. I remember the series, and I remember that there was some incompetence…

  5. Toomanytaxes Avatar
    Toomanytaxes

    VC: A very large issue seems to be the basic lack of oversight from those elected officials appointed to Metro’s board. “Hands-Off Until a Problem is Exposed in the Press” has been the standard procedure of the board for too many years. There has been too much concern with trying to find more money for Metro and too little concern over how existing money is spent. Wage increases for both white and blue collar workers have generally been much higher than the average. There’s been little interest in out-sourcing functions that could be provided more efficiently from contractors. But then even when work is contracted, there’s been virtually no oversight of the contracts. For example, the parking lot operators skimmed more than $1 M in parking fees.

    Few, if any, board members (and even upper management) ever ride public transportation. To his credit, the new WMATA chief from D.C. regularly rides the train. How can you manage the service provider effectively and efficiently when you are unfamilar with the service provided? Little regard is given to either taxpayers or passengers.

    As with most local politicians in the D.C. metro area, the biggest concern of the WMATA board has been to find more taxpayer money to expand the system (which is already poorly managed) to foster more development.

Leave a Reply

Read More