I’ve written many times before about the sheer incompetence of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA, ‘Metro’), and for all this time the buck stopped at the office of Metro Chief Executive Richard White.
For all his internal mismanagement, he competently duped the Metro board, Congress, and many of the area’s citizens into believing that Metro’s problems were due only to poor funding and equipment age—thus keeping his leadership role for ten years while the system crumbled around him.
Inconsistent funding and the age of the system are valid concerns, but the funding situation is mitigated by fares (higher than any other transit system in the United States) and the Metro is no older—often younger—than similar systems in other cities. Metro’s problems stem almost entirely from a patent, incontestable failure of management—Richard White’s area of responsibility. Good riddance.
- Metro Drops Longtime Manager (Washington Post, free registration may be required).