Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) A long and troubled search for Metro’s new general manager ended Thursday when the agency’s board of directors cast a unanimous vote to appoint former head of BWI Airport Paul Wiedefeld to the post.
The board thanked Interim General Manager Jack Requa for his work leading the transit agency since former General Manager Richard Sarles retired in January.
Wiedefeld’s four-year contract officially starts November 30. He’ll earn $397,500.
He told the board his top priority will be safety followed by reliability and finances.
One of his first orders of business will be hiring a new chief safety officer. There has been an acting chief safety office since Jim Dougherty resigned in September.
Wiedefeld also wants to build a better relationship with Metro employees so they feel comfortable reacting to safety issues and reporting them. The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 had said at earlier meetings employees were retaliated against for reporting safety problems they observed.
As a Metro rider himself, Wiedefeld said he understands people’s frustrations with seemingly endless problems affecting reliability adding he felt the same frustration the other day when he was forced to walk up a broken escalator at a Metro station.
“I can’t undo what’s been done, but I can start to move in a different direction, and that’s what I’m gonna do. I ask for patience. I know they don’t want to hear that. I understand that,” he said.
He didn’t give a timeline as to when passengers can expect better service but said he will work tirelessly on improving reliability. Each week he plans to hold meetings to talk about what caused reliability issues that week and what is being done to fix them.
While Metro’s struggling financially, Wiedefeld said he would not support fare increases as a way to increase revenues. “I just don’t think that this is the time to be asking people for more money when we’re not performing to the level that we expect,” he said.
Wiedefeld said he took the job because he likes the challenge, and he’s confident he can take Metro to the next level and make it the reliable system it once was.
(Photo: Heather Curtis)
