half hour hearing. [inaudible]

>> of morning. i would like like to call this joint hearing of the subcommittees on transportation and public assets and government operations to order. two of our subcommittee said the committee on oversight and government reform are holding a joint hearing today and the title of this hearing is safe track. it deals with washington metro and oversight of safety and maintenance issues. were pleased to convene the hearing this morning. the order of business is to start with opening statements from members and then we'll go to our panel of witnesses after we have heard from all of them we will go into questioning. with that, we will begin the hearing and let me recognize first chairman of the full

committee. you you are recognize. >> think it german. i wanted take a point of personal privilege here, the last hearing that mr. michael will chair in the united states congress. mr. micah has served with great distinction for 24 years of this body. he served as the chairman of the transportation infrastructure committee, he has poured his heart and soul into this nation and body into over more than two decades. so we want to say thank you. we want to say thank you and we want to say thank you for the tremendous service that you have dedicated over the years and you have been a great inspiration to a lot of us. it is an honor and privilege to serve with you. we wish you and your wife nothing but the best, but it is an honor to be with you this

last hearing that you are going to chair and we wish you nothing but the best. god bless you and thank you. dialback. [applause] speaking from the democratic side of the aisle, i also want to wish you godspeed and thank you for your service. we have a reputation for not always been able to collaborate on a bipartisan basis but when you and i served together, u.s. chairman of the subcommittee emmy is the ranking member we actually made a lot of common music. i think you did enough a lot of good both here and of course on the transportation committee as well. going to miss you personally john. on behalf of the democratic side of the aisle, thank you for your service to your country. >> will thank you. hang thank you chairman chairman , and all the members of the committee, it has been a pleasure.

mr. meadows, mr. jordan and others that i've had the opportunity to serve with, few minutes ago we got to think some of the staff for their work this year and you cannot operate an important committee like this without having tremendous staff on both sides of the aisle we have been blessed. while there may be some cherry from the bureaucrats that mike is finally gone, i can assure you i still will be very actively engaged and involved. there's no better committee to serve on, i have chair transportation but this committee dating back and till 1808 performed eight performed an important service for the american people. it is not an authorizer, not an appropriate her, but tries to make things right, get things right and hold people accountable. that is is so important in our structure of government. it is been my pleasure to serve

and i am not finished yet either with this hearing or in-service to the people of this great country. i thank you for those accolades. i wish i had more had more of them during my service. [laughter] and my weird sense of human her sick sense of humor, the humor my wife's says most people don't understand i have is inherited thing. so i tried to keep a light side of it along the way. but we do have an important issue. with that being said we need to get to our work here, this is important work and without objection the chairs authorized to declare recess said anytime. fitting in the last hearing is on transportation and i was honored to have the set

committee which is responsible for transportation oversight for the house of representatives under my watch for the past term and unfortunately today we were are back to where we have been before and we have been four times. this is our fourth hearing on oversight and unfortunately some of the problems with the d.c. metro and this congress and those hearings go back until february 2015 that we did another one in july of 2015. and april 2016 and again this is our fourth. if you woke up this morning and in metropolitan area of the district of columbia, northern virginia and maryland, first

thing i was greeted with was my colleague jerry conley on the radio blasting what we all found out in the report that was released yesterday some of the highlights of the ntsb report and we'll hear more about that on the falls church derailment. what is particularly troubling in that report is that unfortunately some of the information about the deterioration of the rail ties and lines in the area was reported in known for more than a year. there are questions about possible falsification of reports, and intimidation intimidation of employees, some folks were trying to do the right thing and safety issues work north. and that is a very serious matter.

so i will talk more about that, again it is the latest in a series of safety issues that we have addressed in these past hearings and again the latest report, not from us but from ntsb highlights that almost 17,000 open open track defects are still waiting to be repaired and some of these dating back until 2008. in a briefing on its investigation, the ntsb conform to our committee that the state of metro's rail is deplorable. metro's current state of disrepair and that is their term not ours, but but we can join them in that evaluation, metro's current state of disrepair is the result of years and years of

deferring maintenance needs, negligence in some cases, unfortunately we have seen cases of gross mismanagement and also most troubling for the taxpayers, as runaway costs. the safety first message has been encouraging and we know he has been on the job a short amount of time. but metro has to continue to improve its performance. we are now halfway through the safe track rebuilding schedule but the system continues to be plagued by safety his stance on almost a weekly basis. on july 5 we had a second signal

violation and on july 29 the train was 63 passengers on board derailed. on on september 13 a crowded train stalled for nearly 40 minutes. with almost no announcements from the operators to the riders. on october twentieth, two safety instructors were almost struck by a train that violated speed restrictions. we continue to see parking incidents and want to hear more about the status of where we are there that of cost smoke, fire, and unfortunately that one of the first junctures we had a loss of life. it's been unfortunately now commonplace that things are so bad they have even created a website and that website is, is

metro fire.com? to find out if metro is suffering from smoke or fire incidents at any particular time. these incidents and service disruptions continue to keep riders and the entire system in constant turmoil. early in january 2015 the previous chairman of the metro board praise the outgoing manager for rebuilding the safety culture from top to bottom, after years of rebuilding under the 5 billion-dollar metro forward capital plan, that was his pronouncement. four days later the plaza incident happened and we had a loss of life and injured 91 people. we need to know both today, here

from these witnesses and also in the future we have to be certain that things are heading in a different direction with this important system. when you see headlines that show the staggering safety lapses on a regular basis, to the staff just show me some of the clips about some of these issues, the most recent and then i said are there a lot of them and i said will take them and you can see there's page after page. these are just washington post articles. i know you do not the times to but this is just the washington

post. but again, this is an incredible array of headlines and articles that the site how the system is broken. we've we've had reports that even brand-new railcars are breaking down. i heard one report that said this is 5 - 10000 miles of breakdown record of the new cars , an average of about 7000 miles on a a car as opposed to 20000 for the normal time in which a vehicle should not experience those problems. so we do have multiple problems. i was stopped by an individual

of his getting on the subway the other day and he had some photos and actually there is a photo and a video, but maybe they could put up the photo that he took of the workers, can we get that put up? you can count about 15 workers and about 15 individuals employed in about three people working and actually he also supplied me, we we don't have it up there, video showing the time-lapse that the people are there but not working. that raises a great question when the public is seen this kind of operation with lots of people standing around, we have some serious issues with even the folks that are there.

i i think the current director for going in and he has made good on some of his challenges, in fact i think he has eliminated 20 senior manager positions and reduced some of the headcount by 1000. but. but you can see there's still a long way to go with some of the people who are not performing. i'm going to ask some questions about contracting some of this work based on performance and payment. i understand also that the union contract is not up for some of these workers still in limbo. we will hear on that, but there has to be a better way to get better results and performance for those on the job. i do want to thank again the new

director for the reforms that he has initiated. maybe we could return this hearing, let's make washington metro great again and that is something that we have a challenge and opportunity to do. we put an incredible amount of money into the system. i googled last night the history of the system and it has been around for 40 years. years. started with 4.7 miles. it was created as one of the finest rapid transit systems in the world and we should be very proud of the system. it serves the nation's capital in this region and it is a shame that we find yourself in this particular situation. i will continue to work on

official capacity to make sure that happens and hopefully this hearing will help us rebuild metro and restore public confidence in an important transportation system. the second largest carrier of commuters in the nation. important in the everyday life of people in this region into the united states of america. i look for to working with you all. i can turn to mr. conley and i'm sure mr. conley will be very warm and fuzzy this morning. >> thank you mr. chairman. before before a big ask unanimous consent of my colleagues be allowed to participate in this hearing. >> read reserving the right -- just kidding. without objection. >> and if the clock could go back to five please for me?

that was a uc request i appreciate this opportunity once again to discuss safety, service, budget challenges faced by the nations transit system. each time the committee revisits the topic and exercises the federal oversight prerogative with regard to metro we are reminded of the close relationship between the functionality of the federal government itself and the health of the nation's transit system. it should come as no surprise that a congressional committee tasked with ensuring the efficiency of the federal government and the safety of the workforce has a vested interest in the transit system that delivers more than one third of the federal workforce every day. in march, when metro announcer was it was shut down for 24 hours the set how would the federal government's office of management accommodate that unlike any other transit system

in the united states, this one is dependent on the federal workforce. its customer base, the, the federal government is the primary stakeholder in this transit system. i look for to working with my colleagues to ensure that public support from metro metro is commensurate with its fundamental reliance on the system. as federal stakeholders i think are organizing principle should be the failure of metro cannot be an option. when we held a hearing in april the system was in crisis. all lights were blinking red. the hearing and witness testimony enumerated the system's mounting crisis leadership, safety, customer confidence in finance. it it was clear the situation require bold and immediate action in the status quo for the metro was the rail position. the purpose of the hearing today is to examine whether metro has stepped back and whether and how

the system consider trajectory for safe, reliable and sustainable operation. unfortunately the leadership crisis that has evolved rather than diminish. after going ten months without a general manager metro finally had someone at the home and general manager paul has demonstrated he understands the problem with metro systemic, one does not have to agree with every major decision hits me to appreciate the fact that thank god he is willing to make them. he came to the position desperately needed relevant experience even though the board fought about what really was required and preferred a green eye shade accountant to someone with experience in operations. we were fortunate we did not down that road. the entering leadership crisis resides in the a moderate aborted director. some board members seem tense

approving the governing body is not capable of managing metro. it took jurisdiction against restriction and fractured the true regional necessary for metro success. and i assure you it will have repercussions appear among your allies and your partners. it's destructive and not welcome. i spent the last 21 years of my life working on metro -related issues. first as a member of the board supervisors and that is chairman of the fairfax county for five years. i made years. i made a pie mr. metro board, result property around metro stations to match maximize the potential. i prove the the subsidy every year without question and help create the local tax district with the full approval of metro support.

in congress i worked diligently with my colleagues to save 150 million-dollar annual federal commitment of safety improvement which is matched by the virginia localities of maryland and dc. and help secure financing for the silver line working with ray lahood to reduce costs and secure funding for that silver line. that's personally painful to witness members so mismanaged this institution this region has invested in a fall back on the parochialism some condemn. from a congressional perspective threats to cl major federal investments, rampant parochialism and political theater on that board destabilize efforts to secure and increased an appropriate level of support appear. it is not like we have that many friends. and it's a fraction of what we

got jeopardizes everything you need on capitol hill. the general manager deserves credit for beginning a sweeping program that will seek to carry out three years worth the maintenance in one year. leading up to the announcement of safe track in may, the incidence including one that came the life of carol glover and exposed i am maintenance situations and metro. safe track gives us something tangible to point to to improve metro safety, the safety problems go far beyond the replacement of high-voltage cables and effective third rail insulators. i welcome the metrics for metro and includes a replacement of 26000 -- since the beginning of the maintenance. however this week the national transportation safety board released a report on the

derailment in july i said once again that metro track constructors were not conducting inspections in accordance with written policy. indeed the ntsb found clear evidence that metro safety inspectors deliberately falsified reports endangering public safety once again. in the report ntsb reiterated the recommendation to the department of transportation and the federal department of transportation that fra ought to have safety responsibility in the foresight. the report stated and i quote, the fta oversight model lacks minimum safety standards, expertise and the resources to provide assurance that corrective action plans are completed. i've repeatedly shared my concerns that they do not have the tools necessary to provide robust oversight of metro.

i think the derailment is a case in point. the customer confidence continues to worsen. ridership is down 13 down 13% in this fiscal year, it's been disruptive to commuters and increase fares and service could only hasten it. i might add loose talk about closing large sections of the system, continue to contribute to the loss of consumer confidence. will it will it be there in the future? apparently not. as a general manager noted the primary cause of metro's current budget challenge of 290 million budget is declining ridership which has been on this trajectory since 2009. there is an effort from management to assert safety and

improve reliability that could go a long way to restoring the maintenance system. going forward staff reduction, service cuts and fare increases are not going to bring about long-term stability. metro is the only nature transportation system without a dedicated source of funding. the system relies on a patchwork of subsidies from local jurisdictions. much overseas 47% of its operating budget from local and state subsidies but not a federal subsidy in 0% from a dedicated source revenue. my hometown of boston our transportation system sees those figures in reverse with 0% coming from local subsidy and 64% coming from a dedicated source of revenue. in my role as chairman of fairfax in 2004i helped launch the blue ribbon panel on metro that ultimately recommended a regional sales tax and called on the federal government to participate in addressing the shortfalls to capital maintenance and system enhancement. this clearly enables them to

meet -- before new funding commitments are made. this will not solve metro's problem if we continue to ignore the dysfunctionality of the board. the culture of indifference that pervades the workforce in the absence of stable revenue any transit system needs. i look for to hearing from the witnesses today and thank you for your time. >> thank you. mr. meadows. >> thank you, chairman. before i begin, i want to just recognize not only the outstanding service that you have provided the great folks of florida and the united states as a whole but a personal friendship to me. as a new guy coming in that had no idea what went on behind the

scenes are what went on out there you took a young guy from north carolina and actually invested in me in a way that quite frankly i will never forget. you have pattered your friends, it has been a difficult year. i want to let you know that i sincerely appreciate your friendship, your leadership, leadership, your investment, your love, and your compassion for the people that you serve, if they knew what i knew that every day that you were worried about serving them more than serving yourself i think they would rise up with a statute. i just want to say i have a personal statute in my heart of a man that i appreciate so much. you know in my district we are the only district in the united

states with a place called mike avella. so every time i go by i will remember it. let me go and turn to the business of today. and let's get serious. i can tell you when i have my good friend jerry conley as upset as he is today i take notice. we talked about this yesterday, we talked about it multiple times but what we have here is a systemic failure to address real problem but actually not only affect ridership in the financial stability, but the safety aspect of our inaction is causing great peril, loss of life, and quite

frankly it cannot be tolerated anymore. this is our fourth year. i'm tired appearance, and tired of excuses, i'm tired of us going back and forth to look at these issues and say well if you just give us a little bit more time we will get it fixed. well this is not a fine wine, it does not improve with time. what we must do is we must act today. the gentleman from virginia ms. comstock has called me a number of times say that we have got to address this particular issue over and over and over again, and yet here we are with safe track and learning that indeed as we start to embark on it, and i want to say thank you, you are making tough choices, i can tell you it is not good for your career. because every time you make a tough choice you have a critic out there that is wanting to suggest that you should not be making that choice. quite frankly we needed you're

kind of leadership years ago. this is a systemic problem that has to be addressed and it has to be addressed now. it will require difficult decisions and is my good friend mr., just pointed out, some of the decisions that are being contemplated by the board are troubling. you and i know that we've had some personal meetings and i'm willing to invest the political capital in a way that does not play well back in north carolina. but i'm willing to do that to fix the system once and for all. what i am not willing to do is to ignore what has become a reoccurring theme. every time we get a new report, every time we start to see something we start to find out things that we should have known months and years ago. to hear the report of falsified record is mind blowing. when you know that we are going to have this kind of detail to

look at, it is mind blowing. and the depth and injury of individuals call it the responsibility of some of those very people who look the other way when we have issues we have to address. so we are going to fix this. we're going to fix this right away and what we are going to make sure of is we look at the track record is that we make hard decisions and so mr. jackson i'm looking forward to hearing from you today, what are the hard decisions you are willing to make as well? what we have here is we have everybody pointing fingers at everybody else. they're saying it's not my job. it's not my responsibility or if we just had a little bit more money we could fix it. then we tell tell you we do have a money problem but this is not the genesis of the problem is not money.

the genesis of this problem the culture that we have allowed to pervade and exist for a long time. it has become the butt of jokes and let me tell you it is not a joke. when you have people stuck on a track and they can't get a hold of an operator for 30 minutes and then he starts on load them onto a get off on a track where you have an active, a possibility for electrocution, that is a real problem. you and i have talked on a couple of occasions and some of the other safety concerns that are out there we need a little bit more transparency so i don't get surprised by reading about something in the washington post. by doing that i understand that you are trying to evaluate.

the other part of that is from an oversight sample if standpoint if are going to make investments for federal dollars we have got to make sure there is a good plan in place to address these so today i'm looking forward to hearing from each of you on how we can address that. shaman heart you are here to hopefully give us some marching orders. it is not good enough if it's in a report and doesn't get acted upon. it's not good enough that we fail to go and do what is necessary to do this. as we start to look at this mr. chairman, i appreciate your leadership on this area, what you are going to find is to both dogs and a bipartisan way with mr. connolly and i will not let this go. it's not because i write it, it's a safety, health, and welfare of the people of this greater washington d.c. metro area that is at stake. we

have to fix it. without a yield back. >> thank you. i will hold the record open for five legislative days for any member who would like to submit a written statement and recognize mr. conley for a unanimous consent. >> thank you i ask unanimous consent that the written statement from democratic and senator elect kristen be entered into the record. >> without objection, sorted. >> will now recognize a panel of witnesses. i'm pleased to welcome to this morning the honorable christopher hart, chairman of the ntsb, mr. matthew welby, executive director of the federal transit administration, mr. paul beautiful was the general manager of the washington metropolitan area transit authority, mr. jack evans, chairman of the washington metropolitan authority and mr. raymond jackson, second vice president

of the amalgamated transit union local 689. i welcome all of our witnesses. this is an investigation and oversight committee hearing and we do swear in all of our witnesses. please rise, raise your right hand. >> do solemnly swear and affirm that the testimony you're about to about to get before this committee of congress is the whole truth, nothing but the truth? the record will reflect that all witnesses have answered in the affirmative. i think i think most of you have been here and we try to limit our testimony to five minutes. if you have a request for additional information or testimony to be added to the record just request that through the chair.

and your entire statement will be made part of the record. we will start out with this morning and recognize first mr. hart, chairman of of the ntsb, welcome back sir, and you are recognized. >> thank you and good morning chairman micah, chairman meadows , ranking member connelly, and members of the two subcommittees. thank you for you for inviting me to testify today on behalf of ntsb. chairman micah, thank you for your years of service in congress and all you have done to advance transportation safety. i would like to act out the accolades have received this morning. i appreciate the continued oversight of the metro system. about three weeks ago they released the most wanted list for 2017 and 18 which again included improving rail transit safety oversight. the ntsb investigation of rails

transit accidents continue to show that safety oversight is unreliable which increases the risk of further accidents, injuries, loss of life. of life. an effective independent oversight system must be created to ensure the highest possible a safety is afforded to the writers and the employees. an adequate oversight of the system is a problem. in general we have found that all the safety program plans were in place they were not effectively implemented or overseen. oversight challenges are particularly acute because of the unique oversight structure. was transit property include one jurisdiction and if you evolve to, one of which typically takes oversight responsibility.

lamont is the only transit property in the united states that involves three jurisdictions. mala, virginia, and the district of columbia. moreover, these collectively share oversight responsibility. this constitutes a challenge to them by no other rail transit system in this country per my written statement details safety oversight in general is inadequate. despite efforts over the years on january 12, 2015 it revealed a revealed a transit system with no effective safety oversight. as a result of this investigate ntsb offered -- on septembersep, 2015 to seek authority for the federal railroad administration to seek oversight. unlike the federal transit administration the federal railroad administration has regulatory inspections and enforcements powers. allowing it to more quickly and effectively address hazards and improve the overall safety of the real operation. secretary of transportation said

pass the federal transportation with direct of metro. the first oversight that they have fta has over authorize. they have no regulations against which to measure compliance and does not have the authority to levy civil or individual penalties in response to safety issues. the department transportation for the more vision the short-term fda oversight role proposing a deadline of february 9, 2017 for a modest three jurisdiction to create an effective state oversight agency. yet in the face of that, we just learned that maryland and virginia have recently notified dot they will not meet this deadline. the ntsb remain concerned that mala, virginia the district of mala, virginia the district of columbia will continue to encounter problems. want to stress the difficulty in forming the oversight body that reports to three jurisdictions. the meantime we continue to investigate accidents that illustrate the need for immediate action. yesterday the ntsb issued an

accident reef on our derailment that occurred on july 29 2016, already referred to the searing. to the searing. the probable cause of this accident was a white track resulting from the sustained use of deteriorating wooden cross due to the ineffective maintenance practices and inadequate safety oversight. the particular concern is ntsb investigators learned that what led to that had previously been identified by inspectors, yet were not properly remediated. ntsb investigators were provided additional documentation joining almost 17000 open defects reported by track records going back as far as 2008. and these are still waiting to be repaired it further illustrates why mediate action is required to address safety issues. ntsb remains convinced that with the history of accidents the fra

federal railroad administration is vital to increasing passenger safety. thanks for the opportunity to testify. i look for to responding to your questions. >> we recognize the fda administrator. >> chairman, ranking members thank you for providing me to provide the oversight. chairman micah thank you for your support building public transportation in our work together on rail over the years. safety remains the top priority for fta and united states private transportation. with that with that in mind, fda has used the authority granted in us by congress to ensure safety improvements by grantees and cruelly including metrorail. at this time significant work remains to bring it into a state of good repair, build a strong

safety safety culture and to improve the agency's financial outlook area and used years of underinvestment have contributed to the deterioration. it is because of this deterioration that metrorail's daily passengers have not received a safe reliable service they should expect. recently fta has observed important steps by ramada leadership prioritizing safety over revenue service in establishing and ensuring safety culture remains a critical task. they received over four and a 15,000,000 dollars in fiscal year 2016. enter the capital dollars are prior ties for improving safety, infrastructure and reliability. in some instances they've use this authority to redirect federal funding to safety and good repair priorities. during 2016 fda conducted investigations into metro rail track integrity, stop signal overruns, vehicle securement

that led to specific corrective actions that must be taken. their results from their work. for the first time since 2012 all real traffic controllers and the modest rail operations control center have completed require annual certification. approximately 2000 employees had expired roadway worker certifications are not retrained and certified. in addition, while while they are not in charge with the day-to-day work of safe track the directives guided the privatization of safe track work to locations work, the most where most urgent repairs were required to reduce the risk of smoke and fire events. as a result we corrected numerous instances of safety within tunnels that affected emergency evacuations. in addition to investigations, we have we have conducted both announced and unannounced inspections and these accident investigations as warranted. we conducted more than 300 inspections during the past year, identified more than 900

remedial actions to date and today we have addressed -- of those. during the inspections fta has identified operating practices and track conditions that lead to immediate orders for slow zones, track segment closures, protecting passengers and workers from unsafe conditions. more progress is required. it's important to note secretary faxes make clear that fta's role it's temporary based on the federal statutory framework. our work work will continue until virginia, maryland, the district of columbia establish a new safety agency is required by federal law. the the three jurisdictions are required to receive certification of a new state safety oversight program no later than february 9, 2017 and failure to meet this deadline could result in the withholding of up to $15 of of federal transit funding from 22 communities in maryland and virginia outside of the washington d.c. region.

in conclusion, fda provides robot safety oversight that is making a difference based on our unique knowledge of transit agencies route the u.s. we are supporting and guiding the critical steps needed to improve the infrastructure, safety culture and operations while ensuring jurisdictions steps forward. the economy and millions of people who rely on it including me. there's more work that must occur to make it safer and more reliable. thank you you for the opportunity to discuss and i look for to answer questions. >> will now hear from lamotta administrator and welcome you back. >> thank you. good morning and paul, the

general manager and chief executive officer of the transit authority. i want to especially thank in recognize jeremy micah who has a career of running infrastructure around the country. i joined last year we went to work to restore confidence by improving safety and making service more reliable. as we work to improve metro we have continued to make clear to our customers and employees in the region that safety comes before service. your long safe track program reflected that. safe track accelerates three years worth of work to approximately one year. it has significant expanse on weeknights weeknight hours. as i detailed in my written testimony we have implemented a number programs continuing continuing to improve customer and employee safety as well as customer experience.

to sustain the progress going forward we had proposed to preventive maintenance program to the board. we are requesting an additional eight hours per week to preventive maintenance inspections on the system. the goal is to reduce service disruption due to track failures and create opportunities to identify and repair track problems before they disrupt service. on the financial side we ended fiscal year 16 and had a clean audit for no time first time in three years. also metro's program invested invested a billion dollars in the system compared to spending approximately 65% in previous years. in the current fiscal year we are on the path to path to spend nearly 1.2 billion meeting our budget forecasts. looking ahead we must bridge a significant projected resource gap to achieve a balanced

operating budget in fiscal year 2018. ridership on the braille has declined significantly in response to poor service, quality and reliability is well as external factors. at the same time costs have increased. to address the funding gap the proposed operating budget proposes an elimination of 500 positions for a total of thousand position in fiscal year 18. outsource in certain functions, reduction rail service, increase service, increase fares, and elimination of certain bus routes and increased subsidies. we will continue to improve safety and management of the system will be putting greater emphasis on customer experience with regards to reducing unscheduled delays due to poor track conditions, improving reliability of the train fleet and enhancing the station environment in 2017. our goal for 2017 is to reduce delays caused by train cars use train cars by 25%.

and on planned delays caused by track issues by 50 percent. finally will be establishing a customer driven metrics which will measure performance to a former decision-making from a customer point of view. it will be used as a management tool for employee accountability. i will close by thinking congress for your continued support of metro to the federal funding which you are invested long term improvements to the system. my full commitment that i will continue to work. thank you for your time and attention. >> thank you. will hear from chairman evans, you are recognized. >> thank you very much mr. chairman and good morning chairman micah, meadows, ranking member's the members of the subcommittee. i want to lend my voice to mr. chairman micah for your great service to the city and country. thank you for that.

i serve as the principal director from washington d.c. on the board in the last ten months have been the chairman of board for lamotta. in in addition i am the word to councilmember on the district of columbia which represents a business district and 11 surrounding neighborhoods. since 1999i have chaired the council's committee on finance and revenue. i appreciate the opportunity to testify before the committee today and provide updates from a prior testimony in april of 2016 and since then they have significant steps to improve safety, reliability and fiscal management of the system. i want want to personally thank congressman hoyer, congressman norton calmly who had opportunity to meet with personally on these matters.

i want to thank you for meeting with me. at the top of the organization the majority of the board of directors has turned over in the past years we now have 12 out of 16 new new board members including three new federal representatives join the board last spring. in my estimation and i served on the board in the 1990s for ten years, this is the best qualified, most of all to most transparent board we've ever had at metro. our general manager has now been at the helm for year come in that time his been able to put together new senior leadership team and implement major initiatives to fix the real system, restructure and right size the agency and better maintain the real fleet. it will provide and has provided detailed information about these but to summarize again there may personal changes, operational changes in so far this year he

is hired a new chief operating officer, new chief safety officer, both who has decades of experience in new york city, a new chief of it business operations to improve and ministry functions. he's restructured the management team in march to break down some of the long-standing divisions within the agency. has pointed out he fired 20 senior managers and has eliminated over 500 positions in the agency. the agency has been undergoing the aggressive takeback project which we have discussed however it's important to keep in mind that safe track will not solve all of the agency's problems. it will make it safer and more reliable but in the words of and you may appreciate that, it's not the end it's not the beginning of the income it's probably just the end of the beginning and that is a true statement about where we are in metros maintenance. in the financial commission condition can be summed up

member the last time i was here told you the numbers 300, 18, two, 2.5. they have changed a little but not much. first the 300 is 290, 290 is a projected 290 landoll or operate a shortfall in year 2018 budget which were dealing with now and runs from july 1 until july jul. the gap includes $103 million from ridership and loss. $87 million from growth related to safe track and 100,000,000 dollars that the agency transferred from capital dollars to operate a dollars to balance the budget. next 18, 18 is still 18, 18,000,000,000 dollars in capital needs that the agency faces over the next ten years. they have produced now a detailed capital needs inventory and reported back to the board this week that the cost of simply deferred maintenance on the state of good repair needs over the next ten years is

17.4 billion dollars. this is essentially a bare-bones capital investment needed to get the system back into baseline of operation. additionally they should execute approximately $800 million of maintenance measures over the next ten years in order to improve its reliability. his capital needs do not include an estimated 7 billion in new needs related complaints with ntsb and the directives and other issues particularly like the rosslyn and briefly that is that is the bottleneck need for new tunnel because of the construction in virginia to carry the trains into the district. it is a 3,500,000,000 dollar 5 billion-dollar item not included in any of our numbers. it has not even been started to study how we would this tunnel. finally 2.8, 2.5 was a number i gave you before. it is now 2.8. that is the unfunded pension and

other postemployment benefits liability deficit. the board has created a special project committee to reveal the pension plans and try to figure out how to deal with this unfunded liability. that's a staggering amount staggering amount for an organization of our size. and on undead liability. if we fail to address these pension obligations they'll find ourselves in the same place district of columbia was in 1995. but a 10,000,000,000 dollar unfunded liability that olds brought the city down. the financial situation is dire. to fill the budget gap they need to increase the subsidy contributions collectively next year by 250,000,000 dollars. the alternative raising fears by 35% closing ridership stations, continuing% closing ridership stations, continuing to use capital funds for operating budget puts a set serious risk. without an increase from our current 1.1 annual capital

funding resources to a proximately 1.8 billion will continue to have the system we have today only for the stress by the hundreds of thousands of new writers that we anticipate in the next decade. it's important to note that in addition were capital funding they have improve the capability to utilize the funds. in the past were only spending about 65 percent, we've now got to the point where he spent almost 100% of the money on capital that we have allocated for the year. we spent over 1 billion-dollar which is the highest ever. in conclusion i appreciate the opportunity to discuss with you to the continued financial problems and the steps we have taken to put the agency head of utter footing moving forward. it's easy easy to think of it as a thomas entity but it's important to remember it is a 40 billion-dollar asset in which all of us each have a 25%

interest. with this 40,000,000,000 dollar asset what are we collectively going to do to take this asset and maintain it make it better? i believe with increased funding and with the collective will of all of us we can fix it. i said before failure is not an option. thank you for the opportunity to testify and i look for to questions. >> thank you. we'll hear from mr. raymond jackson who is with the transit union local, welcome. you are recognized. >> of morning. mr. chairman, ranking committee matter and mr. chairman, i also

want to thank you for your years of dedicated service. my name is raymond jackson and i'm the second vice president of atu local 63 nine. today i'm here to give insight into the safe track program of the challenges that are facing the washington metropolitan area transit authority in the near distant future. when safe track was first introduced local 689 was hopeful that it would mark a departure from the culture and all practices at ramada. as things things progress will now concerned that ramada's failure to talk with our union and with the employees on the ground will be of fatal law. we will have work worked to find a better way to get the work done without disrupting the lives of so many riders in this region. we all have family members who ride the system daily and most of us ride the system as well. we know the frustration was safe track firsthand. unfortunately, the reality of safe track that it is a necessity at this point, fork had been done over the past 20 years they would not be disrupting the lives of the people in this region in the way

that they have in the past six months. at this point safe track is what writers of the region are left with after decades of mismanagement and neglect. were also concerned that ramada continues outside contractors to do the work that can be done by local 689 members have become a way for private companies with no investment in the system to make boatloads of money at the expense of the public. many times our members end up having to redo work somebody's outside companies. it is frustrating for frontline employees to show a lack of for the expertise or members have. we deal with constant complaints about the lack of employee morale. other transit systems in this country and around the world as a culture of labor-management cooperation where employees are treated with dignity on the job. their opinions are valued and

they have a sense of ownership in the work that they do. that is not the ramada way. by and large the invaluable source of knowledge that is represented for long time and place is overlooked and sometimes ignored by management that leads me to the budget proposal going into fiscal year 2018. local 689 is concerned that if they increase their proposed by the agency a response to the impact of safe track pressure to be the death of the system. the fact is people safe, affordable, reliable transit service. the transit service. the only way to bring back writers to restore public confidence in metro. this will know about out be a slow process. we have to prove herself all over again to a public that is understandably had enough of metro's enormous problem. asking our writers to deal with

longer weights and headlines, stranding bus riders is not going to restore customer satisfaction. neither will increase in rail. the proposed increase will put a hurt on some of our most transit dependent writers who have no other way to get around. like most transit system that cut route, ramada is looking for those with low ridership, early morning and late night and weekend service, people who work nontraditional hours will be disproportionately affected. lane off 1000 employees puts a huge burden it's not only ill-advised, but also dangerous. yet this is the plan to date to dig us out of the hole. so through a slash and burn budget proposal they're using the self-inflicted safe track to justify mass cuts in service that will never be accepted in this region under normal circumstances.

riders need to call them out letting them know that we need more, not less. if we go along with this plan people will forever abandon the system and it will crumble causing an embarrassing mobility crisis in our nation's capital. the answer to metro's current budget hole is it short-term cash infusion to get the system on its fee. congress had not come into the aid during the financial crisis seven years ago with a 80 billion-dollar bailout these companies would have evaporated. now american transit system is a smaller boost. we : congress, maryland, d.c., and virginia to come through with the revenues necessary to see us through and to work hand-in-hand with us in an effort to prolong and develop a long-term long-term dedicated funding stream from the federal government in the jurisdiction that will help improve the

system and show that we never face these dire circumstances again. they deserve nothing less. thank you. >> we will turn out to questions. i started out commenting on the east falls church derailment, ntsb report and it quite specifically says the interviewers suggested that they fabricated track measurement and inspection reports. i have some of the inspection reports that are ignored. mr. weed felt, i know he just got the report yesterday almost every time you come before me and say well steps need to be taken to hold people accountable and you have done that, you've got rid of some of the management people who are not

effective in others. not seems like it's fairly simple to traces back to people from the report and who they interviewed and then the reports that were submitted, someone was responsible for ignoring those reports. can these people be held accountable? you know my recommendation is to fire those that do not perform, can we have some results and action based on what we have seen from this report? >> yes. if i could just give you some information what the ntsb reported this information we gave them. that was part of the independent investigation i had started immediately ahead outside people come. >> have those people come you had the information and give it

to them, have you taken action already? >> what i did immediately was once i basically got informed about what we are hearing and seeing who started a criminal investigation. i hired two independent prosecutor that investigation is still open. i don't want to comment any further on that but that is exactly what are doing. >> again holding people accountable. there are consequences for inappropriate or negligent action and if it is worse than that they need to be out. >> i'm told that i asked about an inspector general for the operation, i'm told that is a weak position, either to the performance of the current individual or the position not having the authority to go in and take some action, what is

your assessment? the oig answers to the board, they do not answer to me. >> do you want to comment on it? >> again unless you have some somebody with some teeth to go after people in the information that i'm getting is the ig's either we can performance or the position is weak? what you say? what i have tried to do is in power the ig to be more aggressive than it has been in the past? >> do do you set that authority up markers that by statute? >> federal statute. >> that might be something you all could look at is strengthening the ig position so it has some teeth. somebody has to do something. i mean they see something wrong and there has to be action taken. that's why we have the ig system that would be something i would recommend either if you don't have that authority you need to get the information to the folks

that can modify that and do it quickly. mr. hart, what is the status of the arcing connections? >> thank you for the question. we just issued the final report on the the recommendations are relatively recent. those that are old urgent recommendations about the connection of the power cables that we saw many were missing some of the sleeves to keep this stuff out? >> i saw the ark, we are seeing progress on the action. >> but where are we? do you know mr. rita fell can tell me? >> we eliminate the orange base, we basically replaced all of

those in the underground system which is where the key issue is. we basically have about 5% left on the above ground and that has to be done with remaining searches we will replace those. >> so you're about 5% so maybe i cited that you can go on and see if metro is on fire can be taken down pretty soon. arcing in the connections, communications, worked on out for how long. where are we, i understand the agreement has been executed with companies, the installation has begun, and understand there is only three areas between stations that are now operating

up and operating? >> and we'll continue to do that. basically were doing that is part is the shutdown. >> that's not good. what is the schedule. >> redline he said a redline will be done in 17. >> how many total? seventy areas that are not covered? can we three underway and i'm told her some that are in the process of having equipment installed, zechariah? >> yes or. what is the balance? we will have the redline done in 17. we'll have the blue and orange line done. >> give me numbers. three in another year? >> i can give you an entire schedule. >> i like that in the record and you can follow up. you don't have communication, when they couldn't communicate and we held funds up a couple of times, i think i participated in that to get your attention but we have to have the communications between the stations for the safety of the

passenger but also for the crew and everybody else to communicate. that is one that's undone. back to heart, you had 16800 recommendations, or defects rather, tell me the status of any of your recommendations that are undone or some of these defects that you cited. >> thank you for the question, this goes to the fundamental premise that the railroad administration needs to be in charge. because when there's things that are not fixed though go after that. >> i'll go to the fda in the second. but to your knowledge there's still a huge number of defects that have not been addressed, one, and then to the recommendations that you had, i forget how many you had of that,

very few of those have been met. >> let me clarify it's not only defects it's also maintenance schedules. >> they're supposed to inspect that twice a week and we found that they were inspecting it monthly in their crossover so that's expect with only internal requirements were not being met. >> again you had the list of recommendations for improvements and we have a larger list of defects that were identified do you want to respond? >> where we? >> we have a very large backlog. were prioritizing those and that is one of the reasons were asking for additional time to do preventative maintenance. >> what percentage of your maintenance is contracted out work? and some of these repairs? >> i don't know the exact percentage. >> 10%? in that range.

>> based on the images that were given to me, you have a lot of people out there but not a lot of them working and something has to be done there. mr. jackson it's not going to like this but and i think you still have some negotiations to go or something but whatever you steps to get somebody in there that can perform. if they can't do it, they need to go. if your hiring contract people they need to perform and have them take over some of that responsibility. let me go finally to fta, in september think mr. conley and i both agreed fta's limited capability and mostly a grant agency i guess to conduct safety oversight, the recommendation from heart and ntsb was fra.

do you want to speak to did deficits and capabilities that you have. some of that were made by partnering with fra? >> a year ago when they determined the dc, maryland, maryland, and virginia were not carrying out their state safety and oversight responsibility the authority congress has given us and we stepped inches we have the authority to conduct investigations and we have conducted full investigations in the past year. we looked at track integrity zen issued a report on three. we've issued requirements for specific actions with those investigations. we've conducted over 300 inspections were on-site about six days out of seven over the past year. as a as a result of our inspection work we've issued identified 900

defects. we've corrected about two thirds today. in a number number of instances are inspections of track have resulted in taking track out of service or slow orders. the oversight of metrorail exercise is probably the most scrutiny scrutiny they have applied to 220 miles of track. we have the authority to direct spending and into instances at least we have directed the modern to move spending from one purpose to another. we directed spending in one case to 20,000,000 dollars toward the 7000 series thousand series cars to replace the 1000 series card we also redirected one of which includes replacing and updated at track management inventory system to get a handle on the defects that have been identified. we also have requested from congress in the past the

authority to issue civil penalties and we've also requested the authority three times for congress for the ability for criminal penalties since 2008 we have asked. >> and that has not been granted. let me me turn to mr. conley. >> thank you mr. chairman. >> mr. whelps listening to you apparently you are just providing robust safety oversight. sitting next to the man charged with transportation safety who says otherwise. he says you don't have the capability. i met i met with virginia authorities yesterday who are writing their part of the tri-state oversight legislation which by the way is subject to legislative cycle. it doesn't happen like that. our legislature meets in january. it only last two months. we are part-time legislature. and they tell me that you don't cooperate with them. in fact when they seek information on that route there told it is proprietary.

they have been denied documents and access to information they think is material. i would like you to address mr. hart who says you don't have the capability, far from your testimony of robust oversight, you don't have capability of much and you've had to borrow from resources from fra. >> mr. comley, the recommendation recommendation for the ntsb we take very seriously. a year ago when we recognize the states were not performing their duty we use the authority that we have at u.s. dot and requested authority from congress and the recommendation that mr. hart has put forward would require a member of congress to introduce a bill that would allow the u.s. dot secretary to assign a safety oversight to the fra. then fra would have to substitute its rules for the

lamont rulebook. the secretary cannot cannot do that without congress taking action. >> i will simply point out that the man sitting next to you, his agency offered every port issued yesterday that reiterated that is the fra that should have jurisdiction here, not the fda. because of capability issues. >> we have also requested from congress additional resources and authority to put into effect the new safety responsibility that congress gave to us in 2012 that we requested in 2009 and we asked -- why not just give it to them when they asked initially. >> so congress in both in at 21 in the fast act assigned that responsibility to the federal transit organization and we are doing that now. >> do they have the statutory authority nonetheless to act on the ntsb recommendation and give

it to fra? >> the secretary of transportation could act on the recommendation which is stress congress for authority to reassign the role. he chose not to do that. >> a member of congress can introduce the bill. >> wait a minute, the the secretary of transportation received a report from the nts be that involved a fatality in their recommendation very serious set fra needs to have this not fta for many reasons. that because you not willing, and safety comes first. the secretary chose to do nothing about that other than give it to you. his hands are tied, i don't remember receiving any legislative requests from the secretary of transportation to give him the authority to make sure he can implement the ntsb issue. >> we have pulled together substantial resources and created oversight. we pulled together a team from dot to do direct oversight of

lamotta. >> do you dispute the latest report of ntsb despite you pulling together substantial resources you are [inaudible] the job at the terrel? we have walked miles of track, we've applied more scrutiny to the 220 miles of metrorail than the federal government has ever apply to any rail system. while we have identified instances where track has instances were track has been taken out of service we did not find the fall structures were doing oversight. metro is responsible for the day-to-day oversight. they have standards that the report identified which calls for two times biweekly reviews of all. >> i'm running out of time. i want to give you an opportunity to respond to that. is that how you see things?

>> from the starting port of effective oversight so everybody knows what can and can't be done. they won't be there anytime soon. we're looking at not only the structure. this is not a criticism, were looking at the structure that presently exists. that's not there exists. that's not there with fta. in order for them to have the it will take it quite a bit of time. we're looking to an immediate remedy wedding for all that. >> and does the secretary of transportation have the authority to implement that? >> our recommendation was test congress within a list the property that would be overseen by the federal. >> into the secretary act on that recommendation? >> no. he said that he would prefer to leave the oversight with federal transportation. >> thank you. you're a, you run for office, right? >> indeed i just got reelected. >> congratulations. so one of the things that we have to do in politics is built public support especially for things that involve costs. is that right?

>> yes so do you think your comments and these from the d.c. calling on the metro board are helpful to those of us in virginia and maryland and trying to build any public consensus when you threatened on that board to close down the largest single connection to metro and northern virginia? >> your remark for work calculated to be helpful to us is that right? or were you playing games to appeal to somebody and maybe your jurisdiction without regard to the implications in our jurisdiction over trying to be supportive? >> the background on the comments is the following. the background on is the following. we have a 200 90,000,000 dollars

shortfall this year that will only get greater in the future. >> mr. evans i don't need a lecture of the current condition a metro, i know it intimately. i'm asking you about what you mr. price were getting at and threatening virginia's largest investment. which by the way involves federal funding. the largest single granted in the history of department tatian went to the silver line. and involves federal participation. that has implications for whether we read in new the hundred 50 let alone talk about a federal -- which we share. i'm here to suggest that your comments and those with mr. price were cheap and reckless and have huge implications on my side of the river. you don't want, at least you say you don't want. you campaigned against the particular some of your colleagues on the board. yet you and mr. price are now

the exemplars of that parochialism you to cry. and you've done real damage on our side of the river. do you want to respond to that? >> if you give me a moment. again. everything is on the table with trying to do with the huge deficit going forward. it's clear to me now that neither virginia or maryland will do a dedicated funding source in the future and it's unlikely we'll get federal help. so the cards i have are i have are the deck i have to play with. mr. price was only responded to a question and suggesting on how we could save money. the silver line as he knows not being built by metro. it's been funded by federal dollars in the commonwealth of virginia. although. >> and entirely funded by virginia businesses. but when the silver line is built you turned it over to us to operate. the ridership as of yesterday is

one third of what was predicted. the silver line hope the wider ship would be so great it would cover its operating costs and it's not even close. we are today losing tens of millions of dollars on operating silver line. when the silver line is complete, given the projection metro will be losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year to operate the silver line. so mr. price was one of the most successful african-american businessmen in the country and is a turnaround special looking at businesses saying how are we going to afford to operate the silver line to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars. when we are losing three or $400 million a euro already. >> i think the answer and you and i are on the same page. >> i don't think we are. >> we need more funding from the jurisdiction. . .

but you have no complacency in the entire state with a major investment in the trustee closed and you go down that road and fracture the regional coalition and fracture support up here and you actually do real harm to long-term prospects for the metro. that's my message to you and i've run out of time. sully i'm a big advocate of expanding the silver line. it will be a tremendous addition to the metro. sully mr. chairman mr. evans let me come back to you because the gentleman makes a valid point.

are you suggesting that you looked only at virginia to close down something that had an operational deficit and didn't look at other areas that have operational deficits for closing it down? >> i haven't seen any suggestions other than what the gentleman from virginia is talking about or what ms. comstock is mentioned to me so you are saying you want to protect d.c. and take it from operational deficits that are in virginia and maryland? >> actually mr. chairman there's a long list of cutbacks in service many in the district and many in virginia. >> what i have read it in the "washington post" and other places is basically anything that touches anything that has anything to do with washington d.c. there is this unbelievable outcry that we can't touch anything. is that not your position? >> no mr. chairman. actually as of yesterday there's a huge concession to allow

late-night hours to be curtailed yet again for another year and possibly two years which is very much against our interests but i was able to convince them in the council to with that. >> would not do away with them entirely forever? >> again it will take a year or two years to make sure. >> you get my friends .. that you are making a drastic comment that affects virginia and some little tiny aspects of inconvenience in washington d.c. you debate for hours. do you follow may? >> i do. >> all right so let me go on a little bit back to you mr. wiedefeld. do you believe the safe track program is placed in inc. a state of good repair that allow writers to feel secure and safe on the system? >> i do for the aboveground portion of the system because that's what our focus has been on. typically on the rail type

portion of it. >> mr. evans do believe the same thing? >> i do mr. chairman. >> let me cut to the fda. you believe that as well? >> the safe track work is an important step. >> that's not they question. they just answered it to just answer the question yes or no. >> yale. >> okay. >> let me come back to you mr. hart. i want to come back to the daily rail meant in with the ntsb determined to be the probable cause of this. can you help illuminate us for what the cause of that tournament was? >> this is an area, crossover between parallel tracks. it's an area that has wooden ties and wooden ties were to deteriorate for a long period of time. >> what you are saying is it could have happened in the short period of time so it happened

over a long period of time. c some may go back to original construction. >> that particular area was left without any maintenance because of the derailment? >> inadequate maintenance in this particular segment where we investigated that accident. >> and we put the picture up on the screen and if you all put turn your attention to this. if you will notice that we'll bear, actually the rail is supposed to be between. >> the wheel should be outside of the rail. >> it's actually just on the top of the rail fare. >> correct, close to derailing on the inside of the rail. >> so in your opinion this would be something that is not only a hazard for something that is a derailment waiting to happen? >> this under fra's would have been required because of the

failure to meet the gauge requirements. >> the federal railroad administration rules. >> so i guess that's why we haven't called them in because they would have seen this? >> their requirements would say if you see a defect you have to act on the defect within 30 days and this defect has been around for a lot longer than 30 days. this would have been put out of service altogether or it's. >> so were just not doing their job. >> that as we were asking for fra to be over scientists. >> let me come back to you at the fta because you keep coming back and saying congress can do this and congress can do that and i appreciate that. have you made a request for congress to give you the statutory authority that you seek? >> yes. we are. >> have you made the request,

yes or no? >> we have. >> to whom? >> we actually have the authority to issue regulations to the area that mr. hart described. >> then why haven't you done at? >> we received authority from congress to do that in recent years. we actually have assignments in the fast-track from year ago. >> would be just tell you it's not good enough for you to continue. we have derailments and injuries that are happening on a regular basis. as you just testified you have the authority to fix fix it andu are not fixing it. how many more people have to die before we get you to act in the appropriate manner? >> chairman nye does the broad framework that congress has set forth has a regulatory structure right now holding transit agencies accountable for the standards they have in place. for example the track maintenance and inspection standards are actually more

strict for rail track lateral movement than the standard. the problem is the culture overcomes the rulebook. >> you don't blamed on mr. jackson, is that what you are saying? i'm going to get to the bottom of it here. i'm tired of the double speak. so is it his fault? >> he was following a standard. the incident should not have occurred. >> whose fault is that? >> it's a systematic fault of all the people involved. >> so you are involved, so it's partly your fault. >> we are overseeing lamotta. >> so it's partly your fault? >> yes or no do you have any role in the fault or injuries, yes or no? >> we take seriously our responsibility. >> that's not the question. he answered another question i did not ask.

are you partially at fault? in the fta's lack of authority has been a contributor. you just told me have the authority. you can't have it both ways. are you partially at fault? so when are we going to get it corrected? let me just tell you i'm tired of people blaming different people for the problems and having hearing after hearing. mr. hart has done his work. mr. wiedefeld is doing his work. we have the union that says they are willing to give you an participate and i would assume -- assume fire some of their union members. i don't want him to go on binnie may not get reelected if he does but i assume they are willing to do it. yet he keeps coming back to you and your unwillingness to get the appropriate people involved in the oversight and management along with the other teams. so i'll i want you to report

back to this committee within 30 days the action plan that you are going to have to address that and be able to work with the recommendations we just heard, to be able to work with the recommendations that mr. saw five and mr. jackson made. 30 days. >> yes, sir. >> all right. let me finish with one other aspect. we are here today to get to the bottom of the problem. mr. jackson i heard you say you could come up with a plan to fix this and if they would just listen to your voice come you could do that. i'm going to hold it to your words because here's what i want you to do. if i need you to come back to this body within 30 days, i'm going to give the same time. is that fair mr. jackson? i want you to come back with four recommendations on what we could be doing differently. and one of those recommendations

needs to be with what the union could be doing differently to actually fix this problem. are you willing to do that mr. jackson? >> i am most definitely willing to do that. >> my doors open to you where you can meet with me at any particular time if you believe your union workers are not being heard. i'm willing to listen because we are going to fix this problem. mr. wiedefeld i want to say this. you are making a lot of difficult decisions that will make a lot of people angry and i told you earlier before this that this is not a good career move for you because anything that you do to fix the problem is going to be criticized by somebody. here's what you do. you do have had bipartisan support with i and others on this committee. if you won't make the top decisions we will ask the tough questions and hold people accountable and make sure we do that.

so i want to thank you for your work and i'm over time. i will recognize atonement for five minutes. >> think mr. chairman. reflate a comment i would like to give. 15 or 20 years ago i was a local elected official in the san francisco bay area. i came back here on the policy project with members of california to look at the land-use decisions you are making as a model where we know in the car culture we have to get transit riders and mayor specifically. their rapid transit system doesn't carry nearly the number but still 5% of our total trips. we saw the implications the region and it was $75 million a day that we lost in production. mr. wiedefeld the challenges you have as someone who is believed

to become more urbanized than changed her status you have great examples that we have tried to replicate around the country. you are in this conundrum is a retailer where your ridership is going down. you have two le point-of-sale people off. how do you get that back? i understand safety is first with the retail aspect and i will put this in the context of how once how you are perceived around the country and how the last anecdotal experience less to members -- the last two years as a member i looked across the river and looked at capitol hill of my realtor said you want to be on capitol hill. if you go across the river you won't be able to trust them. that contradicts all the planning you have done with elected officials that we are replicated in other parts of the country where we want people to

be able to live in different areas. long-term we have the safety problem but how do you get that confidence back so we get transit riders back up? >> we have to focus on time bottom line. you are too wasted. we have to pull trains down because of an issue and that's what we are focusing on into 17 and the other is the cars. we have a fleet and we are changing out that fleet. the sooner we get that done the quicker we can get into reliable service. that's the other focus. we have got to get the service reliability up and that's our primary focus for 17. >> just a comment about the fta and i appreciate you at least

admitting responsibility and as i am sure i share the chairman's and mr. connolly's frustration. the bay area's been very frustrating because i think this is a national problem. transit ridership is a total trips. it's inhibiting our economic growth. los angeles is making great strides but they are still for 5%. whether it's congress or partnership with you we have to change the role. can you at least give us guidelines about best practices on our budgets and what is appropriate with the range of operating reserves capital reserves and how can we help other negotiations to make sure our employees who live in high-cost areas like like the bay area in most urban areas get

a fair and equitable wage so you get that writer should back up. it's an observation this is a national problem and i really wish the fta in the future frustration would act with congress in a bipartisan fashion to figure out what is your best possible role not just when it comes to safety but best practices around finances and with that i would like to yield the remaining of my time. >> i think my friend. mr. jackson i heard your testimony and it sounded good about the customers and so forth. what about the union's responsibility and their sources of accountability? >> we have the situation i'm the situation i'm not asking to prejudge up again. you agree if somebody falsifies records and public safety their job ought to be on the line?

>> we had the union try to overturn the decision made by the general manager and red operator who blew through a red light endangering lives. maybe there was a good case. i'm all for due process. i'm a democrat and i support unions but there has to be accountability in the workforce. it's your job to join with me in making sure there are good wages and performance. i want to hear more about that because i didn't hear a lot about that in your testimony especially after the recent ntsb reporter nate the realm at that falsified records. >> mr. connolly i would be more than happy, i would be more than happy to touch on that a little bit for you. as far as the falsification of documents you will have to understand the culture.

if you go to these workers than you asked these workers about these documents, these are the documents. part of it is training and the harassment that the workers receive from their managers. why would a manager give a worker a task that he knows is impossible to complete? >> you are saying that they falsified records because they were harassed? if that is happening, you are saying they falsified the words because someone forced him to falsify them? >> in their mind, they did the work to let me explain to you. if you give me a task that takes 45 minutes to complete i go up there in my mind i can complete that task in five minutes. i went out there and i expected

for them to actually look at it. but you are doing is setting me up to fail. now if i go back and i did not finish those inspections that you know i have no way to complete i am disciplined for not finishing my inspections. what these guys are doing is they are doing the inspections. >> they are falsifying the wreck its? mr. jackson let me just tell you you'll find it will be your biggest ally but if you they are falsifying records and to be fired. simple. is there anybody that falsified records that should have been fired? >> is there anyone that falsified records and should have been fired, yes there has. >> you are going to recommend that? you will go along with the recommendation? >> and went to recommend that we look into the situation. >> that's not what i asked mr. jackson. you are starting to get contagious. you are answering a question i

did not ask. >> i'm never going to recommend firing employees. >> we support the termination if someone is falsified records that may have called the injury of someone else? >> a bow was their intention to falsify the document, yes i will. >> thank you mr. jackson seide i want to recognize the gentleman from virginia, mrs. comstock. >> thank you mr. chairman payday want to reiterate some of the points my colleague from may. not only would it be troubling but irresponsible and i recall political theater buyer governor and general. i think this week demonstrates really why we need to have major changes much like with this federal city council is recommending. we need to blow up the contact and change it and make big changes here. to get creative arbitration which is not allowing us --

mr. wiedefeld to make the changes he needs to put the people on task and the way to get the job done and that we need to change the board. mr. delaney and i have a bill that we have fun changing the board that we need to make a decision so we don't have these types of political theater. i hope in the new year with the new transportation secretary who not only has a lot of experience in transportation but in the labor department that we look at all these issues and right size mattress of you have this partnership that we agree on. i think those were very instructive things that were done and i'm not only very disappointed that it reiterated the need to make major changes here. on the same front with the union i would like to ask mr. jackson, is there a mr. david stevens that you are aware of? is he here today? >> yes, he is. >> can you point him out to us?

>> mr. stephen's? mr. stevens is somebody in the same lines as mr. connolly being concerned about the attack on virginia. he tweet it out recently and i think he was tweeting it today's hearing on barbara comstock is our -- do you believe that mr. jackson? >> mrs. comstock we have a difference of opinion on how this binding arbitration should be handled. >> let me tell you last year we worked together on metro. they got the money restored. i work to do that. i've been working with my colleagues in the region on the transportation committee. when you have that type of mentality, we have been working with mr. wiedefeld and it would be helpful mr. meadows just pointed out on her recent firing

of people mr. connolly pointed out, here's the headline matcher union sues to get fired worker back on the job after the deadly incident. this was another incident where falsified reports happen. you are still pursuing keeping that employee who falsified records come you want to keep unemployed? >> mrs. comstock you have to understand that we have what is known as binding arbitration and the arbitrator decided this employee should keep his position. i believe even in his findings there were some evidence of statements along the line of the culture this company. >> on the culture and i think this would be helpful for all of us to do on a bipartisan basis. i'd like to go out with your track worker and come out with you and see what the process is because i don't understand. seems like nobody has ever read get this. people say there are