Washington Metro, 40 and Creaking, Stares at a Midlife Crisis; New York Times, 4/3/16

Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Nicholas Fandos, New York Times; Washington Metro, 40 and Creaking, Stares at a Midlife Crisis:

"“Clearly in the public mind we have lost credibility in both delivery of the service and some of the safety issues,” Mr. Wiedefeld, 60, said Friday in a surprisingly blunt interview. He said he saw Metro’s safety and reliability problems as rooted in “a very large disconnect between front-line employees and management,” and in a culture in need of an overhaul...

The story of Metro’s transformation from a point of pride to the subject of eye rolling among commuters (as well as a Twitter feed, UnsuckDCMetro, with more than 49,000 followers) is, experts say, traceable to a lack of basic maintenance, a history of inept management and an unwieldy governance structure in which three jurisdictions — Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia — share responsibility for the system...

Now, Mr. Wiedefeld and Mr. Evans appear to be pursuing a two-pronged public relations strategy. While Mr. Wiedefeld tried to tamp down the uproar over potential closures, Mr. Evans made clear in an interview that he was pleased with the reaction, which he hoped would help him “sell the region,” and Congress, on the need for an organizational overhaul and for more money. Metro also has a $2.5 billion unfunded pension liability, Mr. Evans said.

“Unless you are living under a rock,” he said, “everyone now knows that Metro has terrible financial problems.”"