Comstock applauds announcement that 500 non-essential Metro positions will be eliminated

U.S. Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-VA) applauded the announcement on Monday that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority would eliminate 500 “non-essential” positions.

Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld said that the eliminated positions had been deemed non-essential, non-critical to the overall safety mission, duplicative or already vacant.

“This is a start, but we also need to cut wasteful positions that are currently filled but unnecessary to the core mission,” Comstock said. “Metro resources must focus first on creating a safety culture and providing a customer-oriented system that provides on-time and reliable service for its riders. As the new general manager has said, Metro is doing less with more money. That needs to be reversed.”

Wiedefeld said that it would take several months to complete the process, and that it was important to give employees as much notice as possible while maximizing cost savings from non-essential business functions.

“Metro currently has costs that far exceed comparable systems in cities like New York, San Francisco and Chicago while performance is well below average,” Comstock said. “This is another step in the right direction in terms of fundamental change to Metro.”

Following the announcement, the Office of Management and Budget was to immediately provide Metro department leaders with a list of non-safety critical, non-essential vacant positions that would immediately be eliminated, Wiedefeld said.