Metro is NOT Getting Better: Time for Change

I've tried to limit the amount of whining or complaining that is done on this blog, and I've tried to keep it from being simply a Metro news blog. Which is why things have been slow around here at Moving Momentarily this month - there is nothing to do but bitch and complain about the terribly declining state of Metro.

People are getting killed left and right - and that is no joke. Metro is hiding incidents of near collisions until the media finds out about it. Train and bus operators are being caught doing anything but paying attention at the wheel. The communications department is a complete joke and anything they try to do online is done wrong and improperly; not to mention sometimes downright distasteful. Trains are having too many cars put on them by accident. Delays are an enormous problem, some related to the accident and many not. At a time when ridership of mass transit should continue to soar, people are finally giving up on Metro because it is simply unsafe and unreliable.

Before anyone jumps on me, I know these are generalizations. I realize that most Metro employees are hard working men and women and do their jobs well. I also realize that the chances of getting killed or injured on the Metro system are still very low. But the problems listed above are well beyond an acceptable point. THINGS ARE ONLY GETTING WORSE. They are not getting better - at all.

John Catoe, Metro GM, has tried. But he has not tried very well. It is time for a big change, a big change from the top. Mr. Catoe, please step aside and allow the board to put in place someone who can turn this system around and bring us back the Metro we WANT to ride, and can do so safely.

While I'm not a fan of the blog name (because I also write for We Love DC :)), the why.i.hate.dc blog has a great series of articles about the failings of Catoe and WMATA. And they have put together an online petition calling for him to step aside.

Sign this petition to ask John Catoe resign and allow WMATA to put in place new leadership to fix this mess.