Metro News Release

For immediate release: February 28, 2008

Zimmerman takes over as Chairman of Metro's Board of Directors

Focus set on improvements today, setting groundwork for the future

Christopher Zimmerman called on Metro to focus on the twin challenges of today and tomorrow by improving customer service, reliability, quality and performance now and by planning for growing service needs in the future.

For today’s riders, Zimmerman cited safer operation of vehicles, increased adherence to bus schedules, the deployment of more rail cars, buses and MetroAccess vehicles, new express bus service, the use of a “mystery rider” evaluation program, and communicating more effectively with customers as “immediate institutional imperatives” for the transit agency to meet the needs of today’s riders.

To provide improved service to riders, Zimmerman pointed to the development and implementation a number of strategies to improve reliability, increase capacity and enhance the quality of the transit services such as installing overhead grab handles in more rail cars, increasing street supervision of Metrobuses, and developing a new approach to rail station management that focuses more on customer service.

Zimmerman, a member of the Arlington County Board, represents Virginia on the Metro Board and succeeds Elizabeth Hewlett of Prince George’s County, MD, as chairman of the 12-member Board.

Communicating more effectively with Metro’s customers was also targeted as an overriding goal. “When things go wrong, we need to get useful information to our riders as quickly as possible,” he said. “When construction, repair and renovation will impact service, we need to ensure that our customers are fully informed; and, even when things are functioning ‘normally,’ patrons must be able to find their way through our system as conveniently as possible, with helpful assistance as they may need it.”

An improved Web site, improved notification of riders for major construction, improved incident communications, and improved directional signs inside rail stations were a few examples of how Zimmerman envisions improving communication with customers.

The new chairman also wants to “forge a closer working relationship” with the Riders’ Advisory Council by seeking its input on specific proposals to improve service.

In planning for the future, Zimmerman stated that the Board “must continue to work with our Compact partners for additions to our rail network.” He cited the possible extension of rail to Tyson’s Corner and Dulles, the creation of a “Purple Line” in Maryland and instituting modern streetcar service as important work that “means doing our part to help our region find its way to a more rational pattern of land use and transportation” by facilitating the creation of more and better transit-oriented development.”

Zimmerman also envisions the region’s exploration into establishing “exclusive or semi-exclusive lanes that will permit transit vehicles to speed past automobile traffic at peak times” perhaps by copying a network of dedicated highway shoulder lanes as exclusive bus pathways that has been successful in Minneapolis.

“I urge that we set a goal to lay out a blueprint and a timetable” by which the local jurisdictions could deploy at least 100 miles of new dedicated bus lanes and then “advocate for its implementation,” he said.

Zimmerman, an avid transit supporter and rider, challenged his 11 colleagues on the Metro Board to a friendly contest that would have the four representatives of each jurisdiction, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, pitted against each other in a year-long “frequent rider contest” with the winning jurisdiction earning a free dinner hosted by the other two jurisdictions.

Zimmerman joined the Metro Board in January 1998. He previously served as Metro Board Chairman in 2002.

First elected to the Arlington County Board in 1996, Zimmerman served as its Chairman in 1998, 2002 and 2006. He is currently Chairman of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, on which he has represented Arlington since its inception in 2002. In 2004, he was Chairman of the Transportation Planning Board for the National Capital Region. He is also a member of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission and a member of the Virginia Railway Express Operations Board. From 2004 to 2006, Zimmerman served as President of the Virginia Transit Association.

Also today, Jim Graham, a District of Columbia Council Member and representative of the Board, began his term as First Vice Chairman, and, Peter Benjamin, a Maryland representative of the Board, started his service as Second Vice Chairman.

A full copy of Zimmerman’s remarks that he made at today’s Board meeting follow.

Remarks by Metro Board Chairman Christopher Zimmerman on assuming Chairmanship of the Board
February 28, 2008

Introduction

For almost the entirety of my term on the Board, WMATA has been struggling with the transition from an agency designed primarily to manage a construction project, to an operating agency with its primary focus the day-to-day delivery of services to the public.

While there will always be building to do, and our days of growth are by no means over, our corporate mentality, the collective consciousness of this Authority has had to shift to respond to the challenges of managing a mature system.

I believe much of the adversity of recent years reflects the difficulties of that metamorphosis – a change that is not yet complete. Nonetheless, I believe we are beginning to come through it, and a new agency, better focused on its central mission is emerging.

Where we’ve come

In struggling with this challenge the last couple of years, the Board has undertaken a series of important measures. We’ve made new efforts to listen to our customers through a variety of means, including town hall meetings, and the creation of the Riders Advisory Council. We’ve improved accountability, creating an Office of Inspector General independent of the General Manager and staff. And we’ve brought new leadership to the Authority, under which the organization is being substantially re-tooled and re-focused.
In conjunction with the new General Manager and his team, we have stabilized agency finances, with permanent expenditure reductions of more than $60 million last year, and a painful, but necessary, fare increase this year.

Much of the last year was devoted to transition, putting new personnel and organizational structures in place and dealing with critical conditions that demanded immediate attention. Nonetheless, meaningful progress was made in a number of areas that affect the quality of service our customers experience.
By the end of last year WMATA was able to deploy 8-car consists on 20 percent of peak-period trains; delivery of the remainder of the 6000-series order will allow us to reach 50 percent next year. Our bus fleet is newer and more reliable, with over 400 new vehicles in the fleet; 100 more will be deployed by the Spring of 2009. A new effort to clean stations and track is reducing service-interrupting trash fires. An important safety initiative is underway with local safety committees set up throughout the agency, and new training for Metro personnel.

This year we must move forward and make significant progress to meet the high expectations our region has for Metro. For 2008, I see two big challenges:

1.  To focus on customer service, reliability, quality, and performance today;
2.  To plan for tomorrow – fulfilling our leadership role in the region.

The first is the immediate institutional imperative, and I will expound on it at some length.

Delivering the “Best Ride in the Nation”

As I noted, there are important steps already underway to ensure that WMATA delivers, as Mr. Catoe says, “the Best Ride in the Nation.” Examples can be found among the items that appear on today’s agenda, like: the testing of debris collectors in rail stations; the acquisition of a “rail geometry” vehicle to aid in track inspection; and the operational assessment the General Manager will be speaking to later. Our challenge is to put individual measures such as these into a cohesive framework that will constitute a blueprint for high performance and continual improvement.

Let me emphasize something Mr. Catoe has been saying consistently: This is not about doing studies; this is about developing and implementing an action plan.

To truly deliver the “Best Ride in the Nation,” Metro must become a goal-oriented, performance-driven organization. This begins with us, the Board of Directors. We have to work closely with the General Manager, providing overall policy guidance, and otherwise giving him the support he needs to carry it out. We must set the terms by which we hold him and ourselves accountable for the outcomes of the Authority.
Overall, we must support the General Manager’s efforts to establish clear lines of responsibility and accountability within the organization. Then, having set out well-defined objectives, we – and the public – can fairly judge the result.

The Board has already begun working with the General Manager to develop specific goals and performance measures designed to focus the work of the Authority and serve as a gauge of our progress. These will be finalized in March; today I will provide an overview and highlight a few specific goals. (These are samples, not a comprehensive list, and are subject to revision as the Board works with the GM over the next month, but should give an indication of where we’re headed.)

I think the most important areas in which we must strive for progress are: safety; service reliability & quality; and customer communications.

Safety first

As the General Manager continues to implement his safety initiative, the Board will support his effort to “focus employees on immediate correction of situations that pose safety risks” so as to reduce accidents that affect both employees and riders. This will involve strategies such as: employing safety committees in every work location in the agency; focusing on management accountability; and improving safety reporting. The outcome will be judged based on success in achieving specific safety goals, to wit,  WMATA will achieve at least a 10 percent reduction in claims for all work-related injuries; and, ZERO fatalities in 2008.

Service quality and reliability

The General Manager is also developing an action plan to enhance the quality and reliability of our services. Here too, it is my expectation that the Board will endorse some specific performance goals for 2008, such as:

• Reduce all off-loads on Metrorail by 10 percent; reduce off-loads caused by mechanical problems by 25 percent.
• Increase schedule adherence on Metrobus by 10 percent.
• By the end of the year, deploy at least 30 new Metrorail cars, 72 new Metrobuses, and 65 new MetroAccess vehicles.

In order to provide improved service to residents of and visitors to the national capital region, in a reliable and predictable manner that meets or exceeds customer expectations, WMATA will develop and implement new customer service standards by the fall of this year. A variety of strategies will be employed to improve reliability, increase capacity, and enhance the quality of our rail, bus, and paratransit services. Some examples may include:

• Developing a new approach to station management focused on customer service.
• Increasing street supervision on Metrobus.
• Implementing new express bus service on at least one corridor this year.
• Installing “grab handles” in at least 25 percent of rail cars in the fleet.

Sustaining a standard of service that will meet the high expectations our region has of WMATA will require a continuing commitment to quality. This necessitates finding ways of continually gauging our performance. Here, we may usefully take a page from the private sector. Large retailers concerned about the customer’s experience in their stores have long employed “secret shoppers” as a way to help assess their performance. This year Metro will implement a similar program as a tool to help management see the system through our rider’s eyes.

Communicating more effectively with our customers

Perhaps no area better represents the difficulty of, and the need for, an institutional shift to an operations-oriented, customer-focused organization, than communications. Over the years this has been an area of considerable frustration, for Board members as for riders. It is time to change that.

It must be an overriding goal that those who use our services, whether regular patrons or visitors, will find our signage, our technology, and our personnel helpful to them as they travel here.

• When things go wrong we need to get useful information to our riders as quickly as possible;
• When construction, repair, and renovation will impact service we need to insure that our customers are fully informed; and, even
• When things are functioning “normally,” patrons must be able to find their way through our system as conveniently as possible, with helpful assistance as they may need it.

This year, to communicate more effectively with our customers, WMATA will:

• Launch an improved website;
• Improve notification of customers for major construction, with new standards;
• Improve incident communications;
• Improve employee knowledge of anything effecting service to customers; and
• Improve way-finding and directional signage.

On this last point, let me say that this is an example where we have already done enough study to know what we need to do: We piloted better directional signage several years ago, right here at Gallery Place. We need to begin to make the “Gallery Place signage” standard. This year, it is my hope that we will do so in at least 2 additional stations.

What the Board can do

Better communication with our ridership works both ways, and at all levels. That includes the Board. One of my goals this year as Chairman is to forge a closer working relationship with the Rider’s Council, which I have already started on. In January, I held a meeting with the new Chair of the Rider’s Advisory Council and the General Manager. Earlier this month, Mr. Catoe and I visited with the Council at their regular meeting. I expect to stay in close contact with Ms. Iacomini throughout the year, and to seek Rider’s Council input on specific proposals to improve service.

Of course, those of us who govern the system get some of our best understanding of its needs from our own direct use of it. That is why it is so important that, to the greatest degree possible, those in charge share the experience of the riding public. The General Manager recognizes this, and models this behavior himself. He uses the system almost every day, and requires that his senior management ride at least twice a week.

While many in the general public may have the impression that Board members “never take transit” (people constantly come up to me surprised – and, apparently, pleased – to find me on the train or waiting at a bus stop), the reality is different. Most of the members I have served with over the years have been fairly regular riders. Nonetheless, I believe it does us good to be on the trains and buses – especially buses – more often, and it does people good to know we are doing so.

In that spirit, I would like to propose a little friendly competition among the representatives of the delegations from the three compact jurisdictions. On behalf of my colleagues in the Virginia delegation, I hereby issue a challenge to the First Vice-Chair, Mr. Graham, as the “captain” of the team from the District of Columbia, and to the Second Vice-Chair, Mr. Benjamin, as “captain” of the Maryland team, for a small “frequent rider” contest.

The winning team will be the delegation whose members have, by the end of the year, taken the most “unlinked” trips on transit in the region. Here’s a twist: In keeping with the emphasis on expanding our experiences, bus trips will count double. (And they can be on any of the bus systems in the region – Metrobus, Ride-On, Connector, DC Circulator, etc.)

Furthermore, I propose that, next January we gather for a little dinner to celebrate the accomplishments that I am confident we will have achieved this year. The venue to be chosen by the winning team; the other two will buy dinner.

Planning for tomorrow

Finally, let me address what I see as the second great challenge we have: Preparing for the years to come, to meet the ever-growing needs of our dynamic region. While we must be focused on the effort to provide safe, reliable, high-quality service in the present, we cannot neglect our responsibility for regional leadership in transit planning and coordination, at a time of rising fuel costs, continuing air quality problems, and increasing congestion.

Of course, this means we must continue to work with our compact partners for additions to our rail network, whether extending rail to Tyson’s Corner and Dulles, or working to create a “Purple Line,” or assisting the effort to institute modern streetcar service. It also means doing our part to help our region find its way to a more rational pattern of land use and transportation by facilitating the creation of more and better transit-oriented development. (This is something that WMATA has begun doing, and which will be aided by the new Joint Development Guidelines before the Board for approval today.)

I believe we need to make the region aware of another opportunity for expansion of transit capacity that has never been fully developed or promoted.

What if we could augment our 106-mile rail system by adding another 100 mile transit network on top? How much would that help our region cope with its congestion and mobility challenges? How much would it help to address air pollution and greenhouse gas problems? What if we could do it, not in a generation, but in the next five years?

Of course, doubling the Metrorail system would be hard to do even in 25 years. But we could supplement the rail system with a surface network of substantial capacity, using infrastructure that is largely in place today. A high-capacity bus network could be established, with comparable ability to maintain schedule during the morning and evening rush periods, and move large numbers of passengers past congested traffic and on to their destinations.

To do so we need to establish exclusive (or semi-exclusive) lanes that will permit transit vehicles to speed past automobile traffic at peak times. To do so within reasonable cost and time limitations, we need to make the best use of the existing infrastructure in our region. The local, arterial, and interstate road network can be used to move more people more efficiently than it is today. This undoubtedly sounds really hard, but the truth is we wouldn’t even be pioneering: It’s already been done.

In the Minneapolis area a network of, not 100, but more than 200 miles of busway has been operating for most of the last decade, utilizing the shoulders of the existing highway network. Right here in this region we have one example of how this can be done, on a small stretch of the Dulles Toll Road. There are other examples around the world, such as Ottawa, but in this country the real potential has best been demonstrated in Minnesota. Thanks to their effort, ”best practices” have been identified which can serve as a starting point for any other metropolitan area that wants to take advantage of the opportunity.
Of course, Los Angeles has in recent years demonstrated a number of different ways that buses can be deployed to provide high capacity service.

These concepts have been talked about for years; there have been numerous studies and conferences. I submit that it is time to develop an action plan and promote its implementation. I propose that we at Metro take this on as part of our mission. I urge that we set a goal to lay out a blueprint and a timetable by which this region could deploy such a rapid bus network of not less than 100 miles, and then advocate for its implementation.

I recognize that actual implementation will require not only funding, but complex coordination across jurisdictions, and the cooperation of state and local transportation departments which own and operate the facilities. The organizational and political challenges demand leadership on an institutional level – leadership that no other institution in the region is likely to be willing or able to provide. (I would note that this Authority has the responsibility, as set forth in Article II of the Metro Compact, “to coordinate the operation of the public and privately owned or controlled transit facilities, to the fullest extent practicable, into a unified regional transit system.”)

Metro took the first steps necessary to pursue this, just over a year ago, when we convened the region’s first “Bus Summit” in December 2006. Now we need to determine how best to follow up on that beginning.
The institution we have inherited is the legacy of a visionary generation that preceded us. They faced immediate problems that surely seemed no less daunting at the time than those that confront us. Yet, they invested the time and resources to secure a better future for the region, as a result of which we benefit greatly today. We have a duty to act with similar regard for those who will follow us.

Metro stands out as the most successful regional endeavor yet undertaken in greater Washington. I am convinced that it continues to be our best hope for achieving common solutions to our region-wide challenges.

In that spirit, I look forward with enthusiasm to working with all of you this year. Thank you. 

News release issued at 1:50 pm, February 28, 2008.