John Matthews
WMAL.com

WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Officials at Metro are well accustomed to hearing criticism from elected officials and riders about what’s wrong with their beleaguered rail system.

On Thursday, WMATA’s employees will be more than happy to pile on when they testify before Metro’s Board of Directors. Many feel they have answers to help fix Metrorail, but no one in management is willing to listen to them.

“You have experts who are on the job every day that are not allowed to provide input, while Metro spends millions of dollars in bringing in consultants and contractors who tell them what’s wrong – and they don’t know what’s wrong because they don’t know this system,” says David Stephen, a spokesman for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which represents more than 9,000 Metro employees.

The union claims Metro has squandered money not only on non-helpful advice, but also on equipment and parts that don’t fix what’s needs to be fixed.

“If you’re not getting the right parts when you need them, and then have to go back and buy them again, that means that work that could have been done and should have been done in a specific window of time is not being done,” said Stephen.

Stephen says WMATA has to involve its workforce in implementing changes if it wants to adequately fix the system.

General Manager Paul Wiedefeld concedes there has been a disconnect in communication between front line employees and management.

“It’s something we’re working on. It’s not there yet” Wiedefeld told WMAL Wednesday. “It’s about recreating that organizational pride, and that means communication, It means listening, it means taking ideas. But it also means letting people know why you make decisions. It’s all that.”
Copyright 2016 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: WMATA)