Citizendia

The Jackson Graham Building, where Metro headquarters is located.
The Jackson Graham Building, where Metro headquarters is located.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is a tri-jurisdictional government agency authorized by Congress, that operates transit service in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, including the Metrorail and Metrobus. For the government of parliamentary systems see Executive (government. The United States Congress is the bicameral Legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses Transport or transportation is the movement of people and goods from one place to another Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D A metropolitan area is a large population center consisting of a large Metropolis and its adjacent zone of influence or of more than one closely adjoining neighboring central Metrobus is a bus service operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA WMATA is jointly funded by the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland. Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D The Commonwealth of Virginia ( is an American state

Contents

Services

Main article: Washington Metro
Main article: Metrobus (Washington, D.C.)

WMATA operates rapid transit service under the Metrorail brand, as well as fixed-route bus service under the Metrobus brand. Metrobus is a bus service operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway or metro(politan system is an electric passenger railway Metrobus is a bus service operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA WMATA is also part of the public-private partnership that operates the DC Circulator bus system. Public-private partnership ( PPP) describes a government service or private business venture which is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more The DC Circulator is a Downtown circulator Bus system in Washington D WMATA also has its own police agency, the Metro Transit Police.

Colloquially, Metrorail is known as "The Metro" and riders refer to WMATA's Metrobus as simply "the bus", unless they need to distinguish Metrobus from another local bus system such as Alexandria's DASH, or Montgomery County's Ride On. Alexandria is an Independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Driving Alexandrians Safely Home (DASH is the public bus system for the city of Alexandria Virginia, operated by the Alexandria Transit Company Montgomery County of the US state of Maryland is situated just north of Washington D Ride On is the primary public transportation system in Montgomery County Maryland. WMATA as a whole is often informally referred to as "Metro".

History

WMATA Orion VII 2632 oustide Union Station in Washington DC.
WMATA Orion VII 2632 oustide Union Station in Washington DC. Orion Bus Industries, previously Ontario For other meanings see Union Station. See List of Union Stations for a specific station with the name Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D
A view of the inside of the WMATA metrobus Orion VII.
A view of the inside of the WMATA metrobus Orion VII.

WMATA was created on February 20, 1967, after the compact was approved by the Maryland General Assembly in 1965, and passed through the Virginia General Assembly and Congress in 1966. Events 1472 - Orkney and Shetland are left by Norway to Scotland, due to a Dowry payment Year 1967 ( MCMLXVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia. [1] WMATA broke ground for its train system in 1969. Year 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. WMATA's bus system is a successor to four privately owned bus companies (DC Transit, the Washington, Virginia and Maryland Coach Company, the AB&W Transit Company, and the WMA Transit Company), which were sold to WMATA in 1973. just under 100 years between 1862 and 1962 streetcars in Washington D Year 1973 ( MCMLXXIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the 1973 Gregorian calendar.

Future of Metro

Currently, the Metrorail is being extended to provide service to the Tysons Corner area of Virginia, with further extension to Dulles Airport. Tysons Corner is an Unincorporated area in Fairfax County, Virginia, near Washington D Washington Dulles International Airport is a public Airport located 25 miles (40 km) west of the Central business district of Washington D Phase I to Tysons Corner is expected to be completed in 2011. Phase II to Dulles is expected to be completed in 2015. No stations will be opened until the completion of each phase. This will add another color to the Metrorail system, silver. The Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project, informally dubbed the Silver Line due to its color on maps is a planned extension of the Washington Metro Rapid transit Drilling began in mid-2006. There are other rumors of a Georgetown Metrorail connector, an extension of the Green Line northward to BWI Airport, another line along I-395 or Columbia Pike in Virginia, and the Purple Line, which is a circular line to go along the Capital Beltway, particularly the portion between Bethesda and New Carrollton. The Green Line of the Washington Metro consists of 21 Rapid transit stations from Branch Avenue to Greenbelt. Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport serves the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area ( U The Purple Line, previously designated as the Bi-County Transitway, is a proposed 16-mile (25 km transit line to link the Red, Green and Interstate 495 (abbreviated I-495) is a Freeway -class Interstate highway which circles Washington D Bethesda is an Unincorporated area in southern Montgomery County Maryland, just Northwest of Washington D New Carrollton is a city located in central Prince George's County, Maryland, in the United States. An extension from Franconia/Springfield to Ft. Belvoir is also a possibility due to the BRAC realignment which will place thousands of new jobs at Ft. Belvoir by 2012. While there has been much discussion about all of them, none is in any official planning stage. The Silver Line alone took more than ten years to start construction.

Organization

Board of directors

WMATA was set up with a board of directors, with twelve members. Of those, six are voting members, and six are alternates. Virginia, Maryland, and the District each appoint two voting members and two alternate members. The position of board chairman rotates between the three jurisdictions. Most board members have other jobs as well serving on, for example, the D. C. city council; the board appoints a CEO and general manager to supervise the day-to-day operation of the agency.

Leadership

At the outset, WMATA was led by general manager, Jackson Graham, a retired general in the Army Corps of Engineers, who supervised the planning and initial construction of the Metrorail system. The United States Army Corps of Engineers ( USACE) is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 34600 Civilian and 650 Military personnel He retired in 1976, and was replaced by Theodore C. Lutz. Richard S. Page, head of the Urban Mass Transportation Administration, took over as general manager of WMATA in 1979. The Federal Transit Administration ( FTA) is an agency within the United States Department of Transportation (DOT that provides financial and technical assistance [2] Page resigned in 1983, amid increasing financial difficulties for WMATA. [3] and was replaced by Carmen E. Turner,[4] who served for seven years. [5] Former New York City Transit Authority chief, David L. Gunn, took over as head of WMATA in 1991,[6] followed by Lawrence G. The New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA is a Public authority in the U For other persons also named David Gunn see article David Gunn. Reuter in 1994,[7] and Richard A. White in 1996. Richard A White is an American public transportation official who served as the CEO and General Manager of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, from 1996-2006 White would serve as general manager for the next ten years. Dan Tangherlini replaced White as Interim General Manager in February 2006, and Jack Requa, WMATA's current Chief Operating Officer for Bus Service, assumed Tangherlini's duties as Acting General Manager on November 6, 2006. Dan Tangherlini is the current City Administrator of Washington D John B. Catoe, Jr. , who was previously the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, became the agency's eighth permanent General Manager in January 2007. The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (also known as Metro MTA or LACMTA) is the state chartered regional transportation planning and Public transportation

Current leadership

General manager

On January 11, 2006, the Board of Directors announced the resignation of general manager, Richard A. Events 1055 - Theodora is crowned Empress of the Byzantine Empire. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. White. He was replaced by board member Dan Tangherlini, as Interim General Manager, effective February 16, 2006. Dan Tangherlini is the current City Administrator of Washington D Events 1249 - Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khan of the Mongols Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. White had three more years in his contract to work for Metro, but had come under fire for mismanagement; however, he was also "widely credited with saving the Metrobus system from collapse and with keeping Metro running during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "[8]

John B. Catoe, Jr. was sworn in as the General Manager of Metro on January 25, 2007,[9] replacing Jack Requa, who had served as the Acting General Manager since November 6, 2006. Requa reassumed his duties as COO for Metrobus. A chief operating officer or chief operations officer ( COO) is a Corporate officer responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of the Corporation

Board members

District of Columbia:

Maryland:

Virginia:

Funding

In 2004, the Brookings Institution released a report entitled "Deficits by Design" that found the agency's serious budgetary challenges owe in large part to its problematic revenue base. The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington D [12] Most notably, Brookings found that WMATA's extraordinary lack of dedicated funding sources has necessitated an over-reliance on annually appropriated support that makes the agency vulnerable to perennial financial crises. As a result, the region's political and business leaders created a committee to look at new ways to fund the system, including some type of dedicated tax.

In 2005, Rep. Tom Davis introduced the National Capital Transportation Amendments Act that would provide a one-time cash infusion of $1. Thomas M "Tom" Davis III (born January 5 1949 in Minot, North Dakota) is a Republican member of the United 5 billion if the governments in the Washington area can come up with a dedicated revenue source for the agency. [13] The bill passed in the House and was referred to a Senate committee. [14]

See also

References

  1. ^ Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Compact (pdf). Only current railroads are listed here see also List of defunct United States railroads. See also List of Canadian railways There are approximately 150000 Miles (240000 km) of railroad track in the United States, The SmarTrip card is a Plastic contactless stored-value smart card used for payment within the Washington Metro system of Retrieved on 2006-04-19. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1012 - Martyrdom of Alphege in Greenwich London. 1529 - At the Second Diet of Speyer
  2. ^ Feaver, Douglas B. "DOT Official Is Named to Head Metro;U. S. Mass Transit Chief Is Named to Head Metro", The Washington Post, 1979, March 23.  
  3. ^ Lynton, Stephen J. "Page Is Resigning As Metro Manager After Four Years", The Washington Post, 1983, April 3.  
  4. ^ Lynton, Stephen J. "Metro Board Names Turner As Transit System's Manager", The Washington Post, 1983, July 1.  
  5. ^ Kastor, Elizabeth, Stephen C. Fehr. "Metro's Top Official to Join Smithsonian", The Washington Post, 1990, October 3.  
  6. ^ Fehr, Stephen C. "New Metro Chief Welcomes 'Challenge';Gunn Takes Helm of System as Problems of Age and Cost Loom", The Washington Post, 1991, February 22.  
  7. ^ Fehr, Stephen C. "Board Pins Hopes On Next Metro Chief;Reuter Seen as a Superior Negotiator", The Washington Post, 1994, January 31.  
  8. ^ Layton, Lyndsey. "Metro Drops Longtime Manager", The Washington Post, 2006, January 12.  
  9. ^ Metro Press Release: Veteran Transit Executive John B. Catoe, Jr. appointed Metro's next general manager. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
  10. ^ Metro – Principal Directors. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
  11. ^ Metro Press Release: Elizabeth Hewlett and Peter Benjamin Join Metro's Board of Directors. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
  12. ^ Puentes, Robert. "Washington's Metro: Deficits by Design", The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, 2004.  
  13. ^ "HR 3496 National Capital Transportation Amendments Act of 2005".  
  14. ^ Thomas. The Library of Congress.

External links

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