Reply to Finally - WMATA policy overhaul

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Yes to the 8 car train! How are they paying for this? I understand that was always the problem.

This is a great direction, but I confess I was hoping the policy change was about booting the lazy workers![/quote]

+1.  WMATA doesn’t have an infrastructure problem.  It doesn’t have a maintenance problem.  It doesn’t have a financial problem.  It has a severe personnel problem.

Breach the union contracts.  Let them strike.  They don’t do anything anyway.  [/quote]

I think the current changes are a good start, but I agree that a major problem is paid compensation.  WMATA employees who have been working 20+ years make an unreasonable salary. [b] It is unsustainable for a public transit system to be paying train operators more than many professional white-collar workers.  [/b]

I agree that WMATA needs to breach the union contracts and force some sort of cap on salaries.  The salaries are preventing WMATA from adequately funding necessary maintenance and updates to the system.[/quote]

Really? What about airplane pilots and cops? Because after 20 years many in those professions make six-figure base pays with hefty overtime, or in airline cases - strikes, bonuses.

I think the person who is ferrying the equivalent of a 747-passenger list every half-hour should get the pay that would keep us safe. I do think WMATA needs to institute better safety policies (including the amount of hours/shifts a operator can handle without time off) and a complete transformation of all the line tracks and infrastructure.

But I don't think the hundreds of millions they'll need to tear up those miles of 50-year-old tracks will come from cutting a few dozen salaries. It needs a federal infrastructure mandate with $500 million given to each major qualifying city to bring us up to the base standards of say Japan...or South Korea. At this point I'd even take France. 
[/quote]

PP, given the history of WMATA crashes, other disasters, and deaths, does paying shockingly high salaries seem to work for them now?  [/quote]

Does lowering salaries make any sense? No.  [/quote]

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