Metro Board Member Zimmerman Answers MM Questions

I mentioned this in my last post, but I wanted to post the specific answers that Metro board member Chris Zimmerman gave to the questions posed by Moving Momentarily. Thanks again to Greater Greater Washington for organizing this discussion and for being an awesome blog. These excerpts are taken right from the GGW post.

Karl Johnson: So you think ridership would be at the current levels if the accidents and numerous safety issues had not occurred?

CZ: Clearly the capacity of the system was reduced in the period after the June 22 collision, and that inevitably affected ridership. Even now, the effect of running entirely on manual doubtless impacts ridership. That said, the current forecast for the year (leading to the $40 million dollar gap the Board is now struggling with) is about a 2 percent drop in rail ridership over the previous year. In the current economy, that is at the moderate-to-low end of the spectrum for what is being experienced by transit systems nationally.

Karl Johnson: Is the board considering changing out high level management positions at all because of all of the problems that have happened in 2009? The public's perception is that things need to change when significant accidents and issues continue to occur. The public has lost confidence in the Metro system.

CZ: In fact, the General Manager has recently made sweeping changes to the upper-level management of the Authority, including changes in key personnel and reporting relationships, and a restructuring of the administrative system. Personnel changes have included the replacement of the person in charge of operations (rail and bus), the chief safety officer, the chief administrative officer, and the head of communications. Nationwide recruitments are currently underway for several top positions, and the function of the management system (especially involving safety) is under intense scrutiny.

Karl Johnson: What is the board's opinion on the Obama administration's efforts to take over safety oversight of subway systems?

CZ: I strongly support federal oversight, including new standards and a new administrative apparatus to ensure compliance. At the December meeting the Board adopted a resolution I proposed to that effect, so WMATA is on record endorsing the concept.