WARNING FOR STERLING: WASH TIMES EXPOSE "METRO IS GIANT DISASTER" "Most Unsafe Transit System in the World"

Wash Times Headline: Metro derailed by culture of complacence, incompetence, lack of diversity
'Inept get promoted, - capable get buried'

Of course, we have read these stories in the Washington Examiner newspaper previously. Now the Washington Times documents similar allegations with more detail and names names.

According to the Times, a man who pushed PCP the drug and was jailed for 8 years got promoted over a law abiding employee right out of jail!

"............With Metro's budget chronically strained and reports of mismanagement coming more regularly than trains, interviews and internal records depict a likely root: an environment in which hardworking employees are actively excluded and those who rise are those willing to do the bare minimum --- never causing a stir by flagging rampant safety violations, reporting malfeasance or proposing improvements."

Inept People Run the System!

"When the accident happened in 2009, I called a supervisor and said, 'Is this the one we all dreaded?' The way workers do their jobs, we all knew it was a matter of time. " The inept get promoted, and the capable get buried. Smart people were put in the corner, ostracized and given nothing to do," said Christine Townsend,

Millions of Dollars Stolen Regularly-- Nobody Cares!

In recent months, such antiquated record keeping has allowed employees to steal thousands of dollars that electronic systems easily could have detected -- and in more than one case, a culture of complicity has kept prosecutors from trying those who were caught because they feared no clean witness or proper records could be found.

Top Management-- Former Criminals

(A) senior supervisor (is) Robbie O. McGee, who spent eight years in federal prison for felony distribution of PCP while on probation for another crime. He received five pay increases at Metro in two years.

"Most Unsafe Transit System in the World"

Diligence is discouraged, because anywhere one looked was something that needed to be fixed - and change, especially when it involved work, was anathema to senior Metro line workers.

For example, Ms. Townsend said, by 2004, many trains were operating without radios in defiance of federal rules. Other drivers confirmed that was common knowledge. So she authored a study and included a recommendation that Metro start substituting cellphones.

"I was read the riot act: 'You had no right to compile these statistics,' even though it was my job. They didn't want people showing problems," she said.

Union Leaders Protect Criminals

Court records show many of those who get into trouble at Metro for fighting, drugs and the like and have disciplinary actions reversed at the union's behest, meanwhile, already have documented track records of similar behavior. A newsletter boasts, for example, that the union won reinstatement with back pay for a train operator if she completed a drug class. But a search of her name in criminal records indicates that far from this being an isolated incident, the woman has a well-documented drug and theft problem.

Part one of 3 part series
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/26/metro-derailed-by-culture-of-complacence-incompete/?page=all