WMATA provides records, but with a hitch

Last week, I finally received the records I requested in back in March.  However, WMATA did not provide the proper format.  In my letter, I specifically requested "a format suitable to be viewed in a spreadsheet application. This includes, but is not limited to, Microsoft Excel, Google Spreadsheets, XML, or CSV (Comma Separated Values). I will not accept this report as a printed document."  The reports were sent to me in PDF format.

WMATA instituted it's largest ever fare hike, costing Metro riders at least $.30 more per trip.  The excuse this time is "to close a $189 million budget gap for the fiscal year."  This was the same excuse used when Metro proposed an emergancy $.10 fare hike.

On June 10, 2010, the WMATA Board approved the FY2011 budget. From the FY2010 budget, there was a $189 million shortfall.  The changes to the FY2010 budget were as follows:

• Medical and Safety initiatives: $1 million


• Safety recommendations: $6 million


• Eliminate 1% pay increase for non-union employees: ($1 million) (emphasis added)


• Departmental reductions: ($6 million)

And here's what WMATA did to try to close the gap (figures in the millions):

• Additional departmental reductions: $16


• MetroAccess Service: $9


• Fare Increases: $108 (emphasis added)


• Borrowing Preventive Maintenance: $30 (emphasis added)

As of April 2010 (the latest budgetary review available), 16.9% of the budget has been used for "services" and "supplies", both of which are not defined.  So that 16.9% is being overly generious.  My initial entry showed that WMATA spent 77.6% of their budget on salaries and benefits.  As of April 2010, this number is 70.8% of their budget, still higher than the health care secture, which demands 52% of the budget on average.

Note that no increases were eliminted for union employees.  As of this writing, I could not find the current union contract for WMATA.  The only one available expired June 30, 2008.

Instead of reducing salaries, which is where WMATA is bleeding the most, they instead increased fares and "borrowed" $30 million from their preventive maintenance reserves.  My question is if they had $30 million to borrow, why wasn't that money used to actually prevent maintenance on the aging system?

Over the past two weeks, WMATA has experiences several problems: one major security oversight where someone was able to walk onto a MetroBus parking lot, steal a bus, and then crash into a tree.  A few days ago, smoke billowed out of the Dupont Circle Metro Station when one of the escalators stopped working.  Lastly, a MetroAccess driver was arrested for sexually assaulting a passenger.

It's clear that safety is NOT a top priority for WMATA.  The numbers make this obvious.  They care more about pleasing the ATU and their members than repairing the system.  The problem with a union controlling a transit system is that it doesn't matter how many people ride.  If they don't get enough money, they'll complain to the government, who in turn will provide more funding, which will go to the union employees and not to repairs.  Then something will break, the transit system will say it needs money to make things safer to increase fares.  Then people will stop riding, causing the system to not get enough money and round and round it goes.