Crappy Metro Service Explained
Washington DC’s Metro system is chronically broken. The trains are dingy, mechanically unsound, and the escalators never seem to work. Ticket and parking prices are outrageous, and the commute in or out via the Metro often seems more inconvenient than a viable alternative to driving. Now we know why-
From the WashTimes here:
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. In typical examples, court and Metro records show, a black man who spent eight years in prison for dealing PCP was promoted to a high-level management position soon after his release, and whites in the same positions as blacks with far less seniority are inexplicably paid less.
“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, who sued Metro for discrimination and won.
Ms. Townsend had a college degree and a decade of experience as a schoolteacher when she was passed over for a training job in favor of a man who had taken some community college courses and, it turned out, could barely write a sentence.
Also rising rapidly to senior supervisor was 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.
Go read the whole thing. The Metro is funded by the Federal, Virginia and Maryland Governments and it is rotting with nepotism, mismanagement, and favoritism over qualified managment.
Thanks to @jtLOL
Metro derailed by culture of complacence, incompetence, lack of diversity – Washington Times: wtim.es/HeGQKG via @washtimes
— ‘Jim’ ‘Treacher’ (@jtLOL) March 27, 2012
