You didn't put MV Transportation and WMATA on the Spot

At today's Metro Board Meeting, the board had an opportunity to find out why the WMATA procurement process is broken, and they missed the BOAT, err VAN!

Jim Graham was headed in the right direction when he asked what went wrong. But he didn't ask Mr. Jon Monson, CEO of MV Transportation a question that got to the crux of the problem. And he didn't ask Mr. Dick White the same questions...

What where you doing during the three months of transition from September 2005 through January 2006?

If I as a member of the RAC was a non-voting member of the Board of Directors, I could have asked that question. I truly had an urge to jump out of my seat and ask the question myself.

Where you riding the MetroAcess Vans? Where you shadowing the Logisticare dispatchers, and call center? Where you collecting your own data about ridership, policies, procedures, and special needs?

In Mr. Monson's own words, "MV Transportation has done over a hundred transitions". So how can they be surprised that there is a peak ridership in the morning and afternoon commute hours? How can you not know that multiple pickups in a same trip would cause riders to be on the Vans longer? Why didn't Metro or MV Transportation notify riders that they should adjust their schedules to accommodate slightly longer commute times?

In my personal opinion, this is a systemic problem with Metro. There appears to be a problem with monitoring contractors (hint: parking attendants). There appears to be a problem with understanding the purpose of a transition. There seems to be a problem with delegating all responsibility for the MetroAccess database to a contractor. What does WMATA see as its role in the oversight of its contractors, service providers, and employee work-force.

I don't think that this is the last time we're going to see this problem, unless WMATA takes a serious look at their role in providing QUALITY SERVICE to its ridership.


Sounds like 100& failure of Transition. What did metro and MV do during three monthsfrom Sept thru Jan? Didn't they ride the vans? Didn't they shadow the dispatchers? Didn't they collect their own data?