that is why regional leaders are exploring how to work together at the state and local level to provide long-term, predictable and sustanlable funding support to meet metro's needs. we look forward to continued and hopefully increased funding from the federal government. i am confidant this region and the federal government can continue our partnership and rise up together to the challenges. we can make metro a world class system for decades to come. >> we will move into questions. my first question is for mr. weidefelt. ntsb investigations have had similar fiengds.

-- findings. why didn't metro, two questions here, why didn't metro provide better training and staffing for emergency preparedness and the second question is what have you changed at the rail operation control center to make sure, you know, this doesn't repeat itself? >> i cannot speak to the history of what training they did. i know what we are doing. one of the things i have done is replace the head of the reoperation center in april. we have added additional staff and have a more robust training program that came from incidents in the past. we have staffed up. we have a fire liason now 24/7. when i got here it was 16 hours of the day but a lot of instances between emergency personal and someone in the reoperation center, fta is

monitoring the activities daily at the rail operation centers to make sure the proper procedures are being followed. we are doing spot testing of our controllers to make sure they are part of all exercises and in effect we throw curve balls at them during the exercises. >> i have a question for ms. flowers, too. the committee is concerned about wmata safety and the reliability for sure. but we are concerned about the need for all transit agencies to their eficiency. my question is what is the fta doing to ensure transit agencies

recipients are most efficiently using the limited resources they are receiving? are you considering contracting out work through competitive bids whenever that is appropriate, ms. flowers? >> chairman graves, we have program management oversight as well as grant management oversight of our grantees. we do contract out some of that work so that we can, on a national bases, be able to monitor our over 800 grantees. >> how about the -- you contract out the work to monitor them? >> yes. and perform triannual audits and enhanced audits on areas like

f procurement and financial management. >> how about maintenance work and other things for competitive bid? do you encourage that? >> at the grantee level they make decisions on the procurement but we do ask them to be effective in the use of our funds. i know that ms. comstock mentioned the option of contracting out is something she would encourage. that our, you know, agencies that do contract out to try to ensure they effectively use our funds. >> thank you. i have some more questions but i will turn to ms. norton for her opening questions. >> ms. flowers, i want to thank

you all at the fta for the financial discipline you are importing in the metro. quite as it is kept, metro, or wmata's financial record keeping mirrors, or has mirrored the much more widely understood and known issues of safety particularly financially accountable, a system that was in disarray. that directly effects safety because most of the money wmata is getting is for safety. if you look behind the criticism wmata has received we are told 783 million dollars in federal transit funding for wmata is going unspent. everyone assumes that wmata is sitting on money and that wmata

is really ineffective by not spending money it already has so how could it want more money. but if you look behind the numbers, you find, ms. flowers, 390 million is obligated for safety projects and new cars and the remaining amount is waiting reimbursement through fta. now according to the information we have been given from fta in order to bring itself into the compliance it needed, and again i thank you for the discipline that apparently is working, wmata has complied with all 45 recommendations of fta, submitted the required 65 corrected action plans, is

working with fta on a testing and validation plan, has closed five of the required testing and validation items, and submitted 11 and fta has to review with the later four being submitted at a latter date and on time. ms. flowers, an inspector general report of fta criticized the fta for not having consistent policies when it in fact undertakes a very serious matter which is withholding federal funds which in this case means the three jurisdictions get to pay. this report was entitled fta monitored grantees corrective action but lacks policy and

guidance to oversee grantees with restricted access to federal funds. it found for example with respect to wmata and here i am quoting that wmata was required to mail hard copies of the invoice packages to a contractor in north carolina to review which is more time and resource intensive than other processes. my question given the need for every penny wmata can get my question to you is can you specifically identify at what point wmata will be able to return to normal restrictions? ...

normal restrictions and procedures for accessing federal funds that the congress has appropriated rather than drawing down funds by hand which can take anywhere from ten days to two weeks for the money to get to wmata for safety and other matters. >> we are on site at wmata, and we were there yesterday to work on a plan we call aa snapshot plan to try to expedite the issues that you were talking about. we have also put into our regional office additional employees to ensure that we can address the issues and trying to expedite, the drawdowns of wmata. i understand that --

>> if they complied in this way what is left to be done so that we can understand? >> we are in the final steps of the verification process. so -- >> do you expect within a few months, by the end of the year? when do you expect wmata will be able to access funds in the normal fashion? >> in this last step, if we see that the documentation is verified we should be able to, i think, have a targeted lifting of restricted drawdown in certain areas. there is older stuff that i believe will still be there, but we can work with them in terms of addressing targeted and focused areas to lift that drawdown. >> but you don't have a timeframe. the burden is not on you. you.you.

i have done what you asked them to do. the reason i am pressing you, the burden shifts. the fda, but when do you think wmata will be accountable enough so that the drawdowns will no longer -- these will no longer be necessary. >> we are verifying documentation, and i expect in the next few weeks we will have completed this step. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, and i now recognize the chairman for five minutes. >> thank you very much. i appreciate the witnesses being here to testify. i also think congressman delaney's testimony was spot on. ii think that one of the things he said is absolutely paramount in all of this, attract the dollars to an organization you have to 1st demonstrate that you to play those dollars efficiently to get things

done. we're going to give more money. i don't think is been done over the last several years or decades that they deployed those in the most efficient way which requires a cultural change at the agency which i think the new ceo has really set the standard. he saidstandard. he said some tough things and needs to take some tough action. to managing the employees, and if you're going to shakeup a culture at an organization -- and i spent 20i spent 20 years of my life and business and had the unfortunate circumstance of having to terminate people comeau what i thought about this question about me back to one of the 1st hearings i had in this room 15 years ago that the epa associate administrator for hr, the previous congress

passed a law that said federal employees must follow the guidelines congress sets in legislation. my question was, how many people in the last year out of 17,000 at the time did you fire? it took him a couple of whispers back and forth to tell me that they fired one person. terminating and firing people is unpleasant, but there are times when people that don't do the job, doing stuff that is unsafe, negligent, illegal, they must be terminated. my question, do you have the tools necessary -- and i new york coming up to a contract negotiations in, do you have the tools necessary and if a mechanic was negligent are illegal are unsafe, try to work with them but eventually sometimes unfortunately you have to terminate, do you have those tools available that you are able to say to people who are doing the job comeau we

have to let you go, or other locked in a protected? 17,000 people, they terminated one person. that does not make sense. >> if isense. >> if i could, i will come at it from two levels. in terms of the management, three weeks ago i sent a letter out to roughly 650 at will managers, not necessarily managers, not necessarily people sitting behind desks the frontline supervisors and superintendents. i sent out a letter explaining my priorities in management style, but more importantly, i had importantly, i had them sign a piece of paper recognizing that they were at will. shortly after that held a meeting with all 650 of them the 1st time and i understand the history of the agency where that was done.

explain what we are doing that accountability is the most important thing besides safety and customer service. and then shortly after that i did terminate a number of managers and have currently a review of the entire organization in terms of where there are redundancies were just over time positions have not been dealt with. i will continue to manage that. that is the overall management side by have a little clear capability. on the front lines side i have the ability to let people go. we have processes for that. it depends upon the type of discretion. if the patient manager is in the right uniform they get a certain thing. basically all the way up to any major incident where i can terminate immediately. we go through the process that is set up in the contract. and that eventually can get to an arbiter and then it

will go through the process while, which is the normal process, but i do have the ability to do that, and we do do it on a regular basis. >> thank you. i appreciate hearing that from you. weyou. we have got to make sure the safety is paramount. people that ride this whether they are from the area or other parts of the us deserve to have a safe system. if someone is working for the metro that is not, then we need to make sure that safety is paramount. i appreciate it and wish you well. i have been impressed with your management style. >> and i now recognize ranking member defazio for five minutes. >> thank you, madam chair. administrator, i realize your briefly on the job, but in map 21 we gave new

regulatory authority to fta over transit safety, and yet some critical aspects of the role are still lingering somewhere. i don't know whether they are down at the trolls at omb or where they are, but what is your expected timeline? >> are you asking about fastback. >> there are things left over. still pending roles to fully implement that. >> we just issue this day safety oversight role on march 16 command we have several others that are in the process right now, the public safety program will is going to to the process of review now and so expect that to be final rule by midsummer. the national public transportation safety plan

this comment period ended on april 5 command the fda expects to issue it in early fall. we have the public safety transportation agency safety plan, and that is also going to be out early fall. and we also have the safety certification training plan which we expect to come out in midsummer. >> thank you. if you can stay on top of those and make certain that they continue through the process, you know, you mentioned the same thing i did my opening statement or one of the things about the backlog and deferred maintenance. obviously a lot of it lies with the larger legacy systems. this is a legacy system at this point. and as i point out, it is

not an adequate amount of funds. so you know, you had a chance and began to look, and there is focus on them, but do you believe that this problem could be more widespread given that efficiency and funding and the accumulated backlog? >> yes, sir. you mentioned and $84 billion backlog on a national level. ourour estimate is about 86 billion growing at two and a half billion a year command as you indicated, wmata is one of those systems, a legacysystems, a legacy system that probably makes up about 40 percent of the backlog, and so although the administration is asked for additional funding for infrastructure we have been seeing that funding is come, and it creates an issue, and

it makes a challenge for all transit agencies to look at their priorities, and you see that challenge your in dc with wmata where they have to make a decision about what they can do with available funding. >> so, when you -- when you're inspector workforce, you are just ending up your 1st, and the focus right now is wmata, when do you expect to you will have adequate staffing to begin to go out and look at other legacy systems? >> we have focus right now on wmata and have 13 ft use that are basically focused on that area. we have done technical assistance and other areas where we have found problems , but we have been given additional authority but not the funding to basically address that.

>> thirteen total. >> thirteen. there's probably only five inspectors and to investigators. >> five inspectors and to investigators for the federal transit administration to oversee all of the transit agencies in the united states of america? is that correct? >> that's correct. >> that is interesting. i wonder how long it would take if they spent ten minutes at each one,one, how many years that would be, let alone an in-depth look. i hope that congress will soon allocate additional funds for the obligations we put on your agency. >> now recognize mr. michael for five minutes. >> ii can tell you where to look for some of those dollars. they pass legislation that was supposed to consolidate or eliminate 50 to 60 programs only question and

oversight, how many people have left, there are plenty of people and resources. i suggest to my toes secretary to find some to go into important oversight responsibilities of the transit system. now, with some fanfare the sec. has announced -- what is the name of the position that will be created? >> senior advisor. >> a senior advisor just for wmata. >> that's correct. >> i don't want this to be windowdressing. it isit is probably a good idea. probably need some technical people to know what is going on, but in order to make that effective i want you to report to the committee quarterly.quarterly. i will ask the staff for quarterly report. and actually get it back to

us because of going to take some action in the next congress. but we need accountability out of view all, too. 60 percent of capital funds come from the federal government. it is one of the highest in the nation. the closest is the chairman's operations sector gets 39 percent of its money >> is pretty high. in our march 18 hearing and just prior to that i checked to see.

we have to have money. we have to have money. $783 million a week before and federal funds sitting at wmata, checked it. and then the year before 485 million in 2015 sitting there not used. so that money does have constrained side. his or anything that needs to be changed so that money can be used to make the improvements for safety that are necessary? i need to know now because we are doing appropriations. >> yes. >> we have the flexibility. >> but the money was there. the money was there. okay. testified on the 18th. >> what percentage?

>> we have made progress. >> what is left, 20 percent? >> 10 percent. >> we have insulators. >> i know. i have been out there. that was where we are having problems right now. that is being done in-house and contracted. >> with the safe drug plan basically we are using contractors. >> contractors. most of your repairs you probably get done by contract rather than in-house. >> a combination of both. >> okay. again, we have to address the media problems. are there any other major safety issues?

i heard you are doing ties. what would you say are the next safety issues? >> a combination of fasteners, ties, power cables, running rail. >> submit to the committee a list of prioritization and what percentage you think you can do in an outhouse. >> sometimes i havei have a tough demeanor. you need to fire people. part of my italian background. sir, you fire people, about 20, i heard. i'm going to create a new award. you are going to get the 1st one.

for me to you if we can get more people and other agencies, tsa to take the action we would have much better government. thank you for stepping up to the plate and doing your job responsibly. i'll have aa privatization build the turn this over to private management systems and work. we are in fairly good hands. >> staff, make sure the delegates a certificate. >> this is unprecedented. >> thank you. >> thank you. i got to washington. i am from new jersey.

one big transportation hub. i got to washington ten years ago. i was all excited. ever since i got here the reputation and efficiency has just gotten worse and worse and worse. and really it is a shame because this is the nations capitol. and at aa time in america when people are moving into the cities, at a time when you look at washington to government going to give you certificate. people are moving into the city. and yet we have the system

that is a gem now we have less ridership them before. so the city, it impacts everything around the city, the economy, the people coming to work. i think this really has to be turned around on the city is going to standstill. the only people that will be able to move around of the people cutting you off at the bicycles. >> frankly, people deserve better. people deserve a safe system. and i said, look, mr. butterfield, i don't want america to get the wrong impression. but i see that you have action items.

can you tell me what is good but the system that we could work with? this is a system we can fix. we need to get people back in the system. also if it's good? >> is no doubt about it and he is back to the two track system. but that system does perform well, and when you look at other systems they all have issues. i went to school in new jersey, working for a number of years minus some of the issues they have. san francisco is facing significant issues.

it is a large infrastructure investment. day-to-day the system works well. >> also, the concern is people in america are moving back into the cities. if we don't have a system that is safe i think we are headed for trouble, and i know we have a responsibility to make sure there is enough funding for the infrastructure, the safetyinfrastructure, the safety part of it, and i just want america to know what you can still companies the system. we are going to fix it. >> you can cows with a couple in from colorado. theythey got to talking about the metro and had a great experience. i think it is more common than we think. >> thank you for being here and talking about the system. >> thank you, and i recognize mr. webster for five minutes.

>> thank you, madam chair. i read the metro every day for five and a half years from pentagon city to the font to capital south. and you know, i think there are two things here. talking about more money, hiring, firing, all of that, but all i know is that every day that i ride there is no escalator broken. so i started watching three escalators. there are bunch of them. this is three. and i would say that over the past few years that these three that i have watched have been rebuilt four times. i'm talking about all new everything. all the treads, and it just seems to me like there would be a more efficient way to do that.

i would tell you,you, you ought to look. i don't know if there are reports about that, but i can tell you that i know because i have seen it. on the other hand, there is one escalator that is privately done and in the five and a half years i have been writing on that same system where you getwe get dropped off and this one is done by the people around the building, it has been broken wants in five and a half years. so i think there is probably -- ii don't know what you do as far as efficiency in this bars rechecking the people that do your maintenance and so forth, but if the other maintenance -- never been in a rack or anything like that, so i don't know anything about the cars. i cars. i see them. you may have extra ones. what i do know is, the

escalators are fixed,fixed, they're, and you must have them repaired time and time again. and it seems to me -- and i don't knowi don't know if it is done by contractor, your employees. it is the vendor that provides the actual treads and so forth on the escalator, but i would tell you, i believe there are lots of savings to be found. different vendors are different employees were different persons that actually perform the work. so that is my two cents. thatcents. that is only from my experience on it. i don't live here. i have one rail system in my district. it is owned by disney world, and i have never seen a broken in the 30 some years they have been there. we have a lot of people that ride that, too. 66 million every year, and

they go one place, walt disney world and see world and universal studios. but the one rail system seems to be much more maintained, so i would suggest maybe just talking to those who own or operate a rail system, maybe there are savings there, too. with that i yield back. >> and i now recognize for five minutes. >> you probably sitting there thinking my do a better job of criticizing than fixing. there's obviously the stories in the newspapers and on tv that have been scary to me. and my 1st question has it been the ridership and does

that affect your budget and the other question is there have been very high publicized criminal incidences. there was a young man that was stabbed multiple times, a woman that was recently sexually assaulted, and i do not mean to insinuate that that was the fault of metro. my question would be, is there anything that you can do to make it safer? >> the ridership levels, yes, it is a combination of the quality of the service, but it is also just the change in demographics, telecommuting, the growth of the uber, all kinds of things. and we are not unique in that regard either.

major properties. in terms of criminal activity, it is an extremely safe system from that perspective numerically. very safe. that means nothing because obviously that does not mean much for the perception. we have applied a number of of things in terms of policing. we put more police out there , moving people out from behind desks, moving people. we have contracted it out so that we have armed officers, a major recruitment underway to beef up that area. today we are meeting with counsel governments to have an agreement with all the jurisdictions where we can bring in moonlighting officers to beef up the

presence on the system. the reality is, if you do something we get you literally within hours if not days. we are getting these people. these things happen in a matter of seconds. it was a vast, open system is extremely difficult. we are working with local school systems, follow social media and we apply the resources accordingly. >> what are you doing about training so that you do not have to fire? >> i get no pleasure.

it is not -- that is the last thing i want to do, let someone go. so that is the key, to train, to bring people long, and it is not just management but front-line employees. part of the change of the culture. you have to use it when you need to. >> whatto. >> what are you doing up the training? >> a number of things. there focusing on the safety training, just basic, even how we idea our people. >> are you holding glasses? >> a series of classes from outside vendors coming in,

creating programs, we literally have to do it on an annual basis. we have letting it slip. it isit is recruiting people that come in that way, combination of all. >> required, employees are required to go through the training. >> yes. every new employee spends four days and training. >> what about continuing. >> exactly. some of them literally to have their id badge they have to have the training. >> thank you very much. i yield back. >> thank you. i recognize mr. meadows for five minutes. >> thank you, madam chairman. let me come back to you. obviously we have had our dealings before, and i guess my concern yesterday we heard talk about funding, and the focus is about funding and get i understand

that perhaps this is not a funding issue as much as it is a management issue and truly a maintenance issue. >> i think there is an issue with the funding in terms of dedicated and sustainable funding. that means we don't go through an annual budgeting process. >> are you aware that at no time that we can find that the borders come to this committee or the oversight committee to suggest that maintenance was not getting done because they did not have funding? we can't find it. >> am not aware of that. >> if you are not aware than this committee's not aware and the oversight committee is not aware, how can we be focusing our attention on funding when you're bored has never let us know that they are not doing repairs

because of funding? >> i just don't know the history. >> are you aware that there is an average of four times a week of a fire actually occurring on the metro system, there's a greater probability of someone seeing a fire on the metro in washington dc over the last five months and there was in the great smoky national park that i represent, do you find that alarming? >> i do. ii do. i think it is, again, why the safe track plan, it's why put it out there. >> if we are looking at this board and i understand from a board member that the buck stops with you, you are going to have complete authority to make this system safe, reliable,, and the service standard that we

can all applaud. >> if that does not happen will you let this committee and the oversight committee know you are being thwarted by the board. >> again -- >> i guess what i am saying is, i am making a request. if there is aninterference by the board on any of the service related activity will you report back? >> sir, ifsir, if i may, again, i took this job to tackle these issues. if i am thwarted in any way it is not the job for me. >> i ran into a gentleman in the hall a week or two ago and said earlier the board should have someone who start travels the metro each and every day as a citizen advocates of the speak that is on the board.

do you agree? >> i know ai know a number of the board members use the system every day. >> but someone who speaks -- that does not have any political ties and actually speaks for the populace? >> i have that through writers unions and a number of resources. >> what if we took every one of the board members. required them to experience what all the commuters get to experience. didn't have the same appreciation. >> making that a requirement

do you think it is wise to continue to add additional capitol improvement and extend the metro in doing that do you think it is more prudent to have the maintenance. >> whatever the number, 86 million.

increase the system for economic reasons, safety reasons. there is a time for that. i focus is on the maintenance we can't back away from ongoing maintenance. >> i will yield back. >> and now recognize mr. lipinski five minutes. >> i want to make sure i get out there. started a few years ago. the 1st congressional transit caucus. we support public transit across the country, not just my hometown of chicago, but i am also a metro rider when i am out here. the 1st thing i wanted to mention, that wmata recent

cancellation of a new electronic payment program designed to make customer experience better reportedly would've saved up to 60 million a year. there is much invested, and we certainly have a few challenges occurring. i will be asking questions for the record on that them what has happened. but i want to move on. i just want to ask questions. a recent assault on a dc metro bus driver became deadly when the bus was hijacked and killed a pedestrian. driver assaults our national issue. noticed proposed rulemaking and driver salt which is a growing issue. when will fda issue this rulemaking? >> the 1st thing we have done is that our transit

advisory committee on safety has done a study on operators salt and given us best practices and recommendations on preventing and mitigating transit worker assault, so that will be the basis of putting together a proposed rulemaking. they're currently gathering information and input as well as unions to inform this rulemaking. we are in the process right now working on that. >> thank you. i will come back to you later after the hearing. this morning i am a red line writer. single tracking a report of an arcing incident. i said i'm getting on my bike to ride the 17 miles

down to castle hill because i don't know when i will get in. i think metro in so many ways is unfortunately an embarrassment. it needs to work. i'm not here to just tear things down. the region is to come up with a dedicated funding source for metro. we can do anything here. we need definitely i talked about changing colonnade to change the way people act within the system, the whole culture which is difficult to do. i thank you for what you have done so far. i want to ask, the march 16 shutdown causes significant inconvenience.

commuters, two months after the fda released a series of safety directives to metro. among them were things that appear to be routine maintenance including removing debris. so i am concerned about metro's efficiency conducting inspection and repair, especially given the safe track plan and i want to be assured that of metro will cause a series disruption in people's daily lives the you'll be using the time to accomplish all the required maintenance. first, where fda findings in may a result of the march 16 shutdown or the result of previous what? what were the may fda findings? >> i think they reflected the lack of ongoing maintenance and the ability to get out there and do that which is why the safe track as the impact that it has because typically to get out

there and do a level of work we need to do because it is not just one thing. >> but did you know, the main findings, of those, others things that were found on the march 16 shutdown? >> no. we were looking at the power cable issue because that was -- >> are focused on that one thing. >> focused on that. >> measure is completed, will it be in compliance with all federal safety order recommendations? >> it will be. that is the plan. not only to meet it but we have to go beyond it and maintain it. we don't keep doing that will be right back to where we were. >> very quickly, take the red line, here it going by all the time. where i sleep when i am out here, i heard for months the

quick clack of every time a wheelset when over a track for months. a broken rail and i saidi said i could've told you a long time ago is a problem there. it seems like there is somehow something wrong. there is something wrong here. part of trying to make the system run well which is something that needs to change. we need to make the system work. >> thank you, and i now recognize myself for five minutes. i want to highlight an issue for my opening statement

that i talked about, the average costs are higher. operating expenses are 124 percent of average up to 151 percent. and that works out. that is compared to prevailing rates which leads to my question, outside contractors provide the same

service at a lower cost. >> we can. if we have -- and that is what we are doing in effect. >> but are they getting paid this contract rate, or can they were brought in and get these $30 rates trying to save money, get things back online. >> we have met with people.

see if we can expedite. but on the technology front, a sees my language, have you seen the metro blog called on fark metro? how are we using technology? i look at that this morning comeau one of the major questions is about this incident, the crime, so like you to address that, but i wanted to address why don't we and to enable your writers to assist, how can we plug in the system i've

spoken with your technology companies are doing this. this technology enables us to look at the new safety pictures. get a picture, at the timestamp. a lot of accountability. hundreds of unmet safety issues. these new ones go online and in the interest of transparency can you commit to providing that as well as using the technology? >> i do. that is with the care

reporters about comeau we opted things. but will also be frank, i want to work with outside vendors and the community in general that have that knowledge. it is hard to create. it is also something that is not -- we have a lot of smart people in the region. and you are seeing it evolved. that is something that i've made very clear. i want to bring those people to the table. just open it up. >> we talked about this,

goes into the system and it can be timestamp. if somebody is seen thathits seen that fire that day, take a picture and send it in, are your folks tracking that and saying this is a picture that just came in, timestamp, lines up you have to send anyone out to verify. i can give it to you as well as someone who is paying $50 an hour. the time lapses should not be occurring given we have the technology. when you look, most of what we know about it occurred from people using their cell phones and giving us that information. and let's make sure we are using that to maximal effect >> i totally agree. i want our staff to do

things before it gets to that point. an example i gave in front of the cabinet, we had parked render had parked a large piecea large piece of construction equipment in front of it. i should not happen. so that is the culture change that we have to get to. >> canto. >> can we go back to that rape incident under part? >> pursuing that person.

>> to have those kind of statistics on the website by station order way. we all know, the criminal use, the smart card. >> our tv cameras. >> while that was resolved quickly, the public at large did not know about it. that is something everyone is concerned about. can we take those crime statistics whether somebody at will smell, i understand cell phones being stolen how one of the most common things that happen because people are looking at them. can we have those kind of incidents per station reported so that people know and can look and see what is going on in real time and just having although statistics, and what will help you in that way, all of

our transportation resources, universities, you will give them a vast amount of research data to help you to work that you have to pay for. >> i think we have to put it in context. they are just part of the community. i think you know just as likely to happen outside is inside. >> the information is power. people are becoming more for use it. in addition to our costs being hire, are you confident you can bring the cost down? we made a commitment to do

that at the table. wetable. we are focusing on wage, pension, health benefits, workrooms. it does go. given our costs are 120 to 150 percent higher it is incredibly distressing that our performance is 70 percent on time when your average transit system is up in the high '90s. that is the disconnect and concern. i now recognize as este for five minutes. >> thank you. thank you all for joining us. as someone who is a high school student in those metros when they were being built i have a particular interest in the legacy around how we maintain them. a couple of questions. who are you looking at what organizations are what

institutions do you think we should be looking at to inculcate the kind of safety culture that needs to be instinct? >> okay. i spent ten years, and i think that's a great example it is just part of who you are, and trying to instill that same philosophy. it is who you are. >> i would agree. it is baked in the absolutely every decision you make, and then to empower workers to see that as their responsibility to get there 1st following up on what the subcommittee chair said, you look at something like click it fix it to empower people who are

users of the system not as adversaries but as advocates for making sure that the highest priority situations are dealt with 1st. having recently been in silicon valley there are a lot of entrepreneurs who are eager to try to help democracy work well. we need to find some way to tap into their energy and intellectual in a way that helps us launch in the 21st century and not be tried up in trying to update our computer systems. a number of us would be eager to try to help make the connections. we have an ongoing issue not unique to transit. the excitement about developing aa big new system whether it's a bridge or road or airport. whenever put enough money aside for maintenance, for these heavily used transit systems.

given was happened do you have suggestions for how we insist that it is actually being spent as we go and they cannot be postponed because we know that is the political imperative, you would rather go on and do something new, maintenance is never exciting, sexy, but it is a disaster when the worst happens. do you have suggestions? >> one of the criteria that we look at the financial plans for new capital projects is to ensure that in the financial forecast maintenance is included and i think that is going to be critical. when you are constructing a new system you must ensure that there is a way to sustain the system over a

long period of time. assets are built for 50 to 100 years, and so it is, you know, just critical that you look at the way to sustain the system in the future. so that is part of the plans that we look at and addressing the state of good repair as part of our program is also going to be critical and having funding to ensure that these systems have enough funds for maintenance and that the maintenance is not deferred. >> i think wei think we need to be working together to ensure we see the progress. this is the priority project and then you have to come back to the board and say comeau we are not far enough. it is dangerous.

we need to see the progress that we need the judgment of that comeau on the ground was now a critical piece that needs to be addressed. finally, can you talk about the reliability and performance measures comeau what they should expect? not where we would want to be and obviously taking things off-line to exacerbated. what figures are you using, and how will they be communicated? >> sure. you can go online and monitor what we do. one of the things we changed , we used to put on our on time performance on rail cars based on how we manage it. we movedit. we moved to a mechanism whereas you tap into the time you out from a customer perspective is the real delay.

that is what we are starting to put out there. >> thank you. i see my time has expired. >> i recognize mr. norton for five minutes. >> i think the chairwoman for taking me out of order. mr. wieder felt, we all recognize that there are no new ready sources of revenue the usual mythical sources, of course, are, are mentioned from time to time. ..

i do know that in the last fast act that we just did there was a 25% increase on older systems. that was something, that as the ranking member i thought hard for. there really is a difference between the systems and the newer ones. yet, what cannot be ignored is that metros have a 5% loss over the last five years. they're probably going to have more with safe track. i noted in something you said a few months ago that ramada was trying to help itself, is looking for something that business health often does, incentives to re- attract riders. you can tell me, things like if you went into a station and it was crowded and you had to

leave, you could reenter at a later point, some sort of new path. could you outline if you are still considering incentives particularly after your going to lose some of your riders anyway. can you afford to put some of these incentives in place? if so, what kind what kind of incentives are you looking at now to help riders be reattract it to metro? >> a a few things we have done. one is the ability, to tap in, tap out what we call. if you get into a station and there something going on, we would charge you to get back out even though you did not use the system. we change that so basically you have 15 minutes to make up your mind, if something does not play out the way you want you can get back out and do not have to pay. i think that is good customer service product that we should have. we worked with university system for instance where university pass. we are working with american university where they and older

students will have unlimited use of the system for flat fee that they are charged at the beginning of the year as part of their tuition or fees i guess. the rationale that is basically that is a lot of non- peak usage. it also introduces other people that we want to educate about the system use the system. it's another way to attract people like that. again, we're trying to do things from a customer and it side to give real-time information. as i just mentioned so people can make educated decisions. it is continuing to do things like that. i have to balance that clearly with the impact and the revenue of that, on the other hand we have to make sure we are reflecting the times of today and not doing the same stuff we did in 1980 or 19 it 90. >> so notwithstanding fast tracked you're still going to put those incentives out there, perhaps because a fast track you need those incentives out there.

>> yes, we will. >> thank you madame chair. >> i now. >> i now recognize myself another five minutes also. going back to some of the labor costs, can you tell us what it does for track inspector position. what do those paid? >> i do not know the track inspectors, know the operations side, i can get i can get you that but i don't have it right now. >> okay. i know know you are new so i am not blaming you, we have had some other questions and i have not been able to get the answers on some of the labor costs and what we are paying people per our. again, as we are talking about how we right size this and how we get the expenses under control i think it is very helpful to have that transparent and to know what these jobs pay in comparison to -- >> i can tell you at the operations i because most of our employees are bus operators, train operators, the bust operator*just above $19 per

hour. the highest rate hour. the highest rate gets to be about $31 per hour. that is about to visit the country compared to other properties, on the heavy rail side and we are basically about fifth or sixth on the bus side compared to major properties. >> on the 20 people who were fired, assumed assumed there some longevity there so there are people who are so still getting pensions and getting paid, we have legacy costs there. that was one of the questions i had asked him in terms of because currently the policy right now is the overtime goes towards their pension so when you have over time in the systems we were trying to find out what level of overtime there was throughout the system. i understand i understand that while we are doing the accelerated repair that there is inevitably going to be some over time, again that would be why we would hope to look at contracting out. we're not able only be able to

avoid the overtime but avoid the long-term cost that overtime would present as well is to be able to contract out at a lower cost. again, i would reemphasize -- >> i will get you to fax him at. >> going forward into the labor negotiation, what are we the public and congress able to see? we had talked about this a little bit about what we are we able to see the transparency and labor process and what is being negotiated? because you are going to have to negotiate this but since we are partners in this and the entire region is, i think it is important that virginia, maryland, d.c., congress, all know what the negotiations are terms and how we compare to other systems for the country. what kind of information can we get on that? >> we will be presenting that to the board. we'll present all that information to the poor. again, we have an agreement on both sides to do these negotiations.

they are negotiations, we do not want to do them in public, so that is what we are doing. we will take it to the board and that is where public process. >> but when it is presented to the park and it also be presented to us in congress question. >> yes. >> okay, and maybe also to the public because again feeding off of the ability for the public and there's a lot of expertise out there and a lot of people would like to compete in the space to give us a better product, more technologically accurate. when they are able to see in a transparent a transparent way how we operate, think that will give us and more people coming for to talk to us, to talk to you, so we can open up that process and just have an open platform in whatever way we need to, to get that information at whether it be the maintenance, what we are paid various contracts, paratransit, you have highlighted press looking looking at other ways we can save as well as the technology. >> again, again, we have to do

that within the context of it negotiations that are in law. >> okay, ms. forrest you have anything to add on that front and how we might be able to help you? >> how to do your job and how you're trying to approach this question. >> well, we thank you for the support that you have provided to us through the fast act as well as map 21 and expanding our authority. we have the challenges of the additional authority and like everyone else here at the table, you know, funding for that authority is one of the challenges that we have. so, we look for forward to the support through the appropriation process to provide us with the necessary resources that are needed do our job. >> finally, i'm running out of

time here, i guess somebody else am imposing upon except the witnesses. i wanted to ask about the rock. we have been up to visit and i think think you and your staff for bringing us there and continuing to update us on what is going on there. i understand right now, is it correct that we have 46 positions are allocated for the controllers there, but there are currently 19 vacancies. is that still accurate? >> no. i believe the vacancies are down to three. there are people in training now but they're not certified yet to be on the floor. >> okay so we are getting online. i appreciate that because informal reports and things as i said before, that washingtonian magazine kind of gave the customer account but also the worker account of that and it was seen as sort of a source of