Metro GM Gives Mid-Year Progress Report

Metro issued this release about the mid-year progress report: 

"Marking six months in his term as Metro’s permanent General Manager/CEO Richard R. Sarles today detailed the Authority’s progress on safety, reliability and financial stability, and announced several initiatives designed to make the customer experience—from transferring between lines to paying for bus and rail fares—easier and more convenient. 

“I recognize that we still have a great deal of work ahead, but we are making important progress,” Sarles said at today’s regularly scheduled Board of Directors meeting. “While our massive rebuilding effort to improve safety and service reliability is underway, we are also taking every opportunity to make navigating the system a little easier.” 

Sarles announced the launch of a “virtual tunnel” between Farragut West and Farragut North planned for late September or early October pending successful testing of software changes this summer. The virtual tunnel will make transfers between the Red and Blue/Orange lines easier by allowing customers to transfer between Farragut West and Farragut North stations by simply exiting one station and entering the other without being charged an additional fare. The new option eliminates the need to travel to Metro Center to transfer between the Red and Blue/Orange lines. For example, a rider will be able to travel from Bethesda to Ballston by exiting at Farragut North, walking a block and entering at Farragut West to complete the trip to Ballston. 

Sarles also announced the full rollout of SmarTrip® Online Reload at the end of August, a feature that lets registered users load value onto their SmarTrip® cards from their computer rather than at a farecard machine. A pilot program currently is underway with about 5,000 customers testing the system. Riders can opt to add value when they want or use an “autoload” feature to automatically add funds to their card once the balance drops below a certain amount, similar to what EZ Pass users do. 

Metro is entering a new fiscal year with a changed foundation on which it is building a safety-first culture, advancing a massive capital rebuilding program and managing a budget with greater management efficiencies, Sarles said. 
“This change in culture has been recognized by our oversight agencies and Congressional delegation,” Sarles said. “One of the proudest moments for me this year was appearing before Senator Mikulski and our congressional delegation to report safety progress. We went from skepticism, admonishment and ‘do better’ a year ago to acknowledgement of progress, encouragement and ‘keep it up.’” 

On the safety front, Metro has: issued a calendar of major construction that accelerates work on NTSB safety recommendations by more than a year; replaced 20 Mainline No. 8 switches to address NTSB recommendations; closed approximately 95 Tri-State Oversight Committee Corrective Action Plans; trained more than 4,200 employees in the new RWP program; and implemented a system-wide safety plan. 

Sarles also gave a detailed progress report on the massive capital program to bring the system to a state of good repair. “The progress is visible and measurable,” he said. “We have obligated nearly 90% of our capital budget for FY2011 and our expenditures have reached 66% of budget, which shows substantial increases over prior years.” 

In addition, Sarles reported that Metro continues to improve financial stability through better management. The agency ended fiscal year 2011 favorable to budget and was able to repay $30 million borrowed from the capital program. “It’s a point of personal satisfaction for me because it’s good management and good policy,” Sarles said. He also noted a balanced budget for fiscal year 2012 with no fare increases or budget-driven service cuts, which benefits from $74 million in management efficiencies and structural cost changes. To further enhance business efficiency, Metro is improving its procurement process and integrating financial systems. 

Metro also has upgraded its system for notifying riders about elevator outages within the Metrorail system with the new ELstat (elevator status) application that automatically sends elevator status change alerts to riders’ computers or mobile devices. The enhanced service was designed to help improve customer communications and help make it more convenient for people who rely on elevators to access the Metrorail system. Customers may register online for the new elevator electronic alert service, and choose to receive either email notifications or text messages about the status of elevators. Subscribers select the particular stations, days of the week and time of day for which they wish to receive notifications. 

Sarles said he would launch a Mystery Shopper program this year and undertake other customers service initiatives. He counted among Metro’s accomplishments the Authority’s work to improve two-way communications with customers, gathering customer input about significant changes planned for the system. He also noted that Metro has more than doubled the number of people engaged through social media, with a combined Twitter and Facebook following of more than 14,000 people."