Metro derailed by culture of complacence, incompetence, lack of diversity

March 27, 2012

Ninety-seven percent of the bus and train operators at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority are black, with only six white women out of more than 3,000 drivers, according to Metro documents -- a lack of diversity at one of the region's largest employers that has led to an acknowledgment of failure in affirmative-action documents and spawned a series of lawsuits. The homogeneity, interviews with dozens of current and former Metro workers indicated, is a proxy to a clubby culture of favoritism in which merit has little to do with promotions, and accountability, such as noting safety violations, is a career death knell.

Audio Clip: 03-27-12 Luke Rosiak with Andy Parks

Even with big salaries, Metro can't fill its jobs

March 28, 2012

The mechanics tasked with maintaining the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's chronically broken escalators start at $81,000 a year. Bus driver pay goes as high as $114,000 for anyone with a driver's license and a GED. Yet despite an economy that has left people from all walks of life looking for work, Metro says it can't find qualified job applicants.

Audio Clip: 03-28-12 Luke Rosiak with Andy Parks

Metro transit police: Not quite the region's finest

April 2, 2012

While police in Maryland, Virginia and the District work to keep the region safe, also among the mix is the Metro transit system's lesser-known 600-member force, which uniquely has law enforcement authority across all three jurisdictions. But records suggest that the agency has conducted little enforcement of the transit system's everyday rules and that the department also counts among its ranks people who have been arrested for violent and predatory crimes.

Audio Clip: 04-02-12 Luke Rosiak with Andy Parks

Metro gag order at odds with law

April 2, 2012

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's policy of forbidding employees from speaking to the media is at odds with a law designed to reduce impropriety at transit agencies by protecting insiders who bring concerns to light, an expert said.