Metro in the Public Eye

[box]On September 20, the Coalition for Smarter Growth hosted Metro in the Public Eye: a status update from WMATA General Manager Paul Wiedefeld and panel discussion on public perceptions of progress at Metro. The event, hosted at Georgetown University’s Urban and Regional Planning Program, was livestreamed and recorded thanks to the generous support of TransitCenter. [line]

Livestream

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Program description and details

Paul Wiedefeld has been General Manager of WMATA for almost 12 months. During his short tenure, he has taken a number of decisive actions to move the system forward and instill a new culture, such as launching the SafeTrack maintenance program, introducing the CARe customer accountability report, rebuilding its leadership team, engaging the regional community in funding discussions, putting safety first by shutting down the system for a day in a blizzard, and aggressively investigating incidents including calling for a police investigation.

Join us for a progress check with the GM. What is getting done? Where do we go from here? How have these and other actions of the past year impacted public perceptions of Metro? How can the public engage in the effort to fix Metro? Wiedefeld, and a panel of observers and transit experts, will weigh in on these issues and more, and answer audience questions.

Panel:

  • Paul Wiedefeld, General Manager, WMATA
  • Stewart Schwartz, Executive Director, Coalition for Smarter Growth
  • Neil Albert, President and Executive Director, DowntownDC BID
  • Jackie Jeter, President, ATU Local 689
  • Martin DiCaro, Transportation Reporter, WAMU
  • Uwe Brandes, Executive Director, Georgetown University Urban and Regional Planning Program (Moderator)

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About the series

This event was part one of a two-part WMATA series.

The second livestreamed forum, focusing on funding, will take place on October 26. RSVP is now open, with more details to come.

[button link=”https://smartergrowth.net/wmatachat2″]RSVP now[/button]

These events are part of the Coalition for Smarter Growth’s Walking Tours & Forums Series, made possible by the National Association of Realtors, as well as part of Georgetown University Urban and Regional Planning Program’s fall event series.

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