Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is a tri-jurisdictional government agency authorized by Congress, that operates transit service in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, including the Metrorail and Metrobus. WMATA is jointly funded by the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland.

ervices

WMATA operates rapid transit service under the Metrorail brand, as well as fixed-route bus service under the Metrobus brand. WMATA is also part of the public-private partnership that operates the DC Circulator bus system. WMATA also has its own police agency, the Metro Transit Police.

Colloquially, Metrorail is known as "The Metro" and riders refer to WMATA's Metrobus as simply "the bus", unless they need to distinguish Metrobus from another local bus system such as Alexandria's DASH, or Montgomery County's Ride On. WMATA as a whole is often informally referred to as "Metro".

History

WMATA was created on February 20, 1967, after the compact was approved by the Maryland General Assembly in 1965, and passed through the Virginia General Assembly and Congress in 1966. cite web|url=http://www.wmata.com/about/parp_docs/compact.pdf |title=Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Compact (pdf) |accessdate=2006-04-19] WMATA broke ground for its train system in 1969. WMATA's bus system is a successor to four privately owned bus companies (DC Transit, the Washington, Virginia and Maryland Coach Company, the AB&W Transit Company, and the WMA Transit Company), which were sold to WMATA in 1973.

Future of Metro

Currently, the Metrorail is being extended to provide service to the Tysons Corner area of Virginia, with further extension to Dulles Airport. Phase I to Tysons Corner is expected to be completed in 2011. Phase II to Dulles is expected to be completed in 2015. No stations will be opened until the completion of each phase. This will add another color to the Metrorail system, silver. Drilling began in mid-2006. There are other rumors of a Georgetown Metrorail connector, an extension of the Green Line northward to BWI Airport, another line along I-395 or Columbia Pike in Virginia, and the Purple Line, which is a circular line to go along the Capital Beltway, particularly the portion between Bethesda and New Carrollton. An extension from Franconia/Springfield to Ft. Belvoir is also a possibility due to the BRAC realignment which will place thousands of new jobs at Ft. Belvoir by 2012. While there has been much discussion about all of them, none is in any official planning stage. The Silver Line alone took more than ten years to start construction.

In October 2008, a new line, the Brown Line, was proposed. The Brown Line will not be a new section of track but an alternate route along the existing Blue, Yellow, and Green Line tracks. The Brown Line is proposed to travel from Franconia-Springfield to Greenbelt via the Fenwick Bridge. Plans are to have trains leaving Franconia-Springfield alternate between Blue and Brown Line trains. WMATA states that the new line is intended to address low ridership along the Blue Line between Rosslyn and Foggy Bottom-GWU while also providing a shorter route into downtown Washington, DC for riders of the Blue Line in Northern Virginia. No date has yet been set for the addition of the new line.cite web|url=http://www.wtop.com/?nid=30&sid=1492781|title=Is Metro adding another color to its rail map? |accessdate=2008-10-09]

Organization

Board of directors

WMATA was set up with a board of directors, with twelve members. Of those, six are voting members, and six are alternates. Virginia, Maryland, and the District each appoint two voting members and two alternate members. The position of board chairman rotates between the three jurisdictions. Most board members have other jobs as well serving on, for example, the D.C. city council; the board appoints a CEO and general manager to supervise the day-to-day operation of the agency.

Leadership

At the outset, WMATA was led by general manager, Jackson Graham, a retired general in the Army Corps of Engineers, who supervised the planning and initial construction of the Metrorail system. He retired in 1976, and was replaced by Theodore C. Lutz. Richard S. Page, head of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, took over as general manager of WMATA in 1979. [cite news|title=DOT Official Is Named to Head Metro;U.S. Mass Transit Chief Is Named to Head Metro |publisher=The Washington Post |author=Feaver, Douglas B |date=1979, March 23] Page resigned in 1983, amid increasing financial difficulties for WMATA. [cite news|title=Page Is Resigning As Metro Manager After Four Years |publisher=The Washington Post |author=Lynton, Stephen J |date=1983, April 3] and was replaced by Carmen E. Turner, [cite news|title=Metro Board Names Turner As Transit System's Manager |publisher=The Washington Post |publisher=The Washington Post |author=Lynton, Stephen J |date=1983, July 1] who served for seven years. [cite news|title=Metro's Top Official to Join Smithsonian |author=Kastor, Elizabeth, Stephen C. Fehr|publisher=The Washington Post|date=1990, October 3] Former New York City Transit Authority chief, David L. Gunn, took over as head of WMATA in 1991, [cite news|title=New Metro Chief Welcomes 'Challenge';Gunn Takes Helm of System as Problems of Age and Cost Loom |publisher=The Washington Post |author=Fehr, Stephen C |date=1991, February 22] followed by Lawrence G. Reuter in 1994, [cite news|title=Board Pins Hopes On Next Metro Chief;Reuter Seen as a Superior Negotiator|publisher=The Washington Post |author=Fehr, Stephen C|date=1994, January 31] and Richard A. White in 1996. White would serve as general manager for the next ten years. Dan Tangherlini replaced White as Interim General Manager in February 2006, and Jack Requa, WMATA's current Chief Operating Officer for Bus Service, assumed Tangherlini's duties as Acting General Manager on November 6, 2006. John B. Catoe, Jr., who was previously the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, became the agency's eighth permanent General Manager in January 2007.

Current leadership

General manager

On January 11, 2006, the Board of Directors announced the resignation of general manager, Richard A. White. He was replaced by board member Dan Tangherlini, as Interim General Manager, effective February 16, 2006. White had three more years in his contract to work for Metro, but had come under fire for mismanagement; however, he was also "widely credited with saving the Metrobus system from collapse and with keeping Metro running during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001." [cite news|title= [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/11/AR2006011101542.html?nav=rss_metro Metro Drops Longtime Manager] |publisher=The Washington Post |author=Layton, Lyndsey|date=2006, January 12]

John B. Catoe, Jr. was sworn in as the General Manager of Metro on January 25, 2007, [cite web|url=http://www.wmata.com/about/met_news/PressReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=1512|publisher=Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority|title=Metro Press Release: Veteran Transit Executive John B. Catoe, Jr. appointed Metro's next general manager] replacing Jack Requa, who had served as the Acting General Manager since November 6, 2006. Requa reassumed his duties as COO for Metrobus.

Board members

District of Columbia:
* Jim Graham, second vice chairman and principal member
* Emeka C. Moneme, principal member
* Marion Barry, alternate
* Anthony R. Giancola, P.E., alternate

Maryland:
* Elizabeth M. Hewlett, chairman and principal member
* Peter Benjamin, principal member
* Marcell Solomon, alternate
* Gordon Linton, alternate

Virginia:
* Christopher Zimmerman, first vice chairman and principal member
* Dana Kauffman, principal member
* William D. Euille, alternate
* Catherine Hudgins, alternate [cite web|url=http://www.wmata.com/about/board_gm/board.cfm|publisher=Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority|title=Metro – Principal Directors] [cite web|url=http://www.wmata.com/about/MET_NEWS/PressReleaseDetail.cfm?ReleaseID=1601|publisher=Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority|title=Metro Press Release: Elizabeth Hewlett and Peter Benjamin Join Metro's Board of Directors]

Funding

In 2004, the Brookings Institution released a report entitled "Deficits by Design" that found the agency's serious budgetary challenges owe in large part to its problematic revenue base. [cite news|title=Washington's Metro: Deficits by Design|publisher=The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program |author=Puentes, Robert |date=2004] Most notably, Brookings found that WMATA's extraordinary lack of dedicated funding sources has necessitated an over-reliance on annually appropriated support that makes the agency vulnerable to perennial financial crises. As a result, the region's political and business leaders created a committee to look at new ways to fund the system, including some type of dedicated tax.

In 2005, Rep. Tom Davis introduced the National Capital Transportation Amendments Act that would provide a one-time cash infusion of $1.5 billion if the governments in the Washington area can come up with a dedicated revenue source for the agency. [cite news|title=HR 3496 National Capital Transportation Amendments Act of 2005] The bill passed in the House and was referred to a Senate committee. [cite web|url=http://thomas.loc.gov/home/multicongress/multicongress.html|publisher=The Library of Congress|title=Thomas]

ee also

*List of Washington, D.C. railroads
*List of United States railroads
*SmarTrip - Optional payment system for use of Metro transportation (required for Metro parking)

References

External links

* [http://www.wmata.com/ Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority]
* [http://www.dullesmetro.com/ Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project]
* [http://blog.washingtonpost.com/getthere/ The Washington Post - Transportation]