Metro News Release

For immediate release: April 26, 2007

Elizabeth Hewlett's goals as new chair of Metro Board

The year ahead is a pivotal year for Metro, and we have many challenges ahead of us. I am looking forward to working with my colleagues on the Board and with the new General Manager to take a fresh, yet aggressive approach to providing high-quality transit service to the Washington Metropolitan region.

We have a shared obligation to make the most of our opportunity to serve, and we must immediately address several issues that pose a threat to the strength and future of this organization.

As I embark on my chairmanship, there are several issues that are of importance to me as Chair:

• The efficient operations of the Board and the system;
• Respect for all sides of all issues we discuss;
• The efficient and cost effective operation of WMATA;
• Metro system-wide safety for both bus and rail;
• WMATA employees’ satisfaction and engagement in their work;
• Protection of the resources that we have fiduciary responsibility to protect;
• Continuation of operations of the Board at the highest ethical level;
• And of course, to work with this Board, the public, the participant jurisdictions, and the men and women of WMATA to bring about results. No man - or woman - is an island, hence, we must have a collaborative effort. We must also find a way to navigate through inevitable differences that crop up from time to time, and come together for the “greater good.”

First, we must cut excessive costs and find ways to operate in the most efficient and cost-effective manner, without sacrificing safety or service for our customers. For many outside this organization, the generous retirement plan and overtime-padded pensions are symbolic of an agency that has lost its way.

In addition to the negative headlines, this practice is costing Metro enormous amounts of money and worse still, cause potentially unsafe working conditions. As it is entirely unacceptable, though appropriate at times, the amount of overtime worked by Metro staff must be reviewed, limited to instances where appropriate and when permitted. It must be done in a way that ensures proper rest between shifts and guarantees safety. Use of overtime must be balanced, considering such factors as need and safety. And it must be done in this coming year.

We must also continue to look for additional efficiencies in the way this agency conducts its daily business and make the difficult decisions of consolidating, realigning, eliminating, and reworking the system in a way that ultimately results in improved service. After all, we are a provider of service.

It is time for Metro to be singularly focused on providing high-quality transit service, and nothing else.

We must also do everything in our power to be good stewards of the regional and federal dollars that we receive. As Congress begins consideration of the much needed dedicated funding for Metro, it is imperative that we take steps toward reducing costs, streamlining operations, and improving transparency. Quite simply, we need to earn the trust and confidence of our federal partners if we are to be successful in our quest for dedicated funding.

Another major challenge we face this year is restoring the public’s confidence in Metro as a safe mode of transit. I’m sure the Board joins me in challenging Mr. Catoe and his executive staff to plant the seeds for a new Metro culture - one grounded in safety. Metro must become a place in which employees who come to work get to go home safely to their families each day. One in which the public doesn’t have to hold its collective breath when a bus enters a crowded intersection or shudder at the thought of what can happen after a piece of track sparks, smokes, and burns.

We also need the entire WMATA workforce to join together in this endeavor. Every employee must make a personal commitment to overseeing the safety of his or her fellow employees, and the millions of customers who ride Metrobus, MetroAccess, and Metrorail. We must balance our safety concerns with needs and demands for overtime. It’s time for a new corporate culture at Metro, one driven by a simple, overarching premise: safety first. It won’t happen overnight, but I know that by working together, we can make Metro the safest transit system in the country.

While we work on these challenges this year, we must always keep our customers in mind. We must continually seek new ways to improve service to our bus, rail and paratransit riders by improving reliability, cleanliness, communication, and overall customer satisfaction. Let’s not forget that our customers have a choice about how to travel around the region for work, entertainment or other needs. To some, it may seem like we have taken our customers for granted. Frankly, Metro can no longer afford to act like a utility with a monopoly on transportation services. Our customers have options, and we need to do everything in our power to convince them that Metro is their best option.

Improving customer confidence in our ability to make sound financial decisions with our limited resources is an important step toward winning back customers and to increasing our ridership. We are all pleased that staff has been able to develop a new budget for FY ‘08 that holds the line on fare increases and service cuts. But that doesn’t mean our work is done. Let’s work collaboratively to develop a new fare policy that sets expectations for our current and future riders in terms of pricing. This year, I challenge Mr. Catoe to develop a rational and comprehensive fare structure - with the help and guidance of our customers, the Board, the JCC, our jurisdictional partners, and the RAC - that this Board can adopt and that will prepare Metro to serve our customers into the future.

WMATA has undergone many changes over the past year or so, with more transformations to come. We must all work together, and make every effort, to support and encourage Metro employees during this time. I want our employees to be satisfied but more important, engaged fully, which will ultimately lead to a more uplifting organization where people are happy to come to work and eager to do a great job.

To those employees whose job will be eliminated in the coming weeks because of our new organizational realignment, let me first say thank you for your dedication and service to Metro. My colleagues and I all recognize that this is very difficult for employees, who are human beings with very real needs. We regret that our new organizational focus on service and efficiency will require the elimination of some positions and the lay-off of employees. This will be a traumatic experience, but I am confident that Mr. Catoe and staff will do everything we can to help those who will be leaving WMATA to land on their feet.

In the two weeks that I have been on the Board, I have heard Mr. Catoe say he wants to make this transit system the best in the country. I want to encourage him in that endeavor. He has also told me that he knows what needs to be done to improve safety, cut overtime, improve service, and bring the Board to consensus on a rational comprehensive fare policy. I am ready to support his efforts in all of these critical areas.

I am confident that with the backing of this Board, Mr. Catoe’s aggressive approach and dedication to improvement, combined with his soon-to-be newly designed and more efficient organization, will make this a year we can look back upon with pride in our commitment to improving this organization.

Also, I would like to extend my thanks to Mr. Deegan and Mr. Briscuso for their years of dedication and service, and for ably representing the citizens of Maryland.

News release issued at 12:00 am, April 26, 2007.