Management changes at WMATA

WMATA -Orange Line train at East Falls Church
Originally uploaded by Point Images

Today's newspapers (see "Metro management headed for shake-up, chairman says" from the Washington Post), report that WMATA will be announcing management changes today, with the inference that General Manager Catoe will keep his position.

For months I have opined that there likely is a need to overhaul the rail operations directorate and the safety programs directorate, not to mention the overall culture about how the agency is operated--it was first managed as a construction organization led by a General from the Army Corps of Engineer and that kind of organizational attitude has shaped the agency ever since--in many dimensions, from customer service to how it deals with employees.

The safety and operational failures have been intense.

But then the leadership failures of the board of directors, which is comprised of elected and appointed officials from DC, Maryland and Virginia, have also been intense. (I.e., DC's primary objectives are to keep fares down and move the WMATA headquarters to Anacostia. Neither are necessarily in the best interest in the maintenance of a successful and robust metropolitan transit system.)

The legacy and culture of the organization needs to change. But these problems predate the current General Manager, John Catoe, who came to DC after being one of the top officials of the LACMTA system in Los Angeles (which has a much more robust bus system than the DC region, and a developing light rail system).

Now, Mr. Catoe was hired not because of his experience with rail operations, but because of his experience with bus systems, under the belief that WMATA needed to bolster its operational excellence in the bus service arena, because the Board of Directors and the agency took the smooth operation of the rail system for granted.

The rail system is the backbone of the metropolitan transit network in the DC region and it should never be taken for granted.

GOING FORWARD, WMATA MUST NEVER HIRE A GENERAL MANAGER WHO DOES NOT HAVE EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE LEADING RAIL-BASED TRANSIT SYSTEMS.

Even so, at this juncture I am still willing to concede the benefit of the doubt to Mr. Catoe.