Shot in the Dark

Home To Roost

Ten years ago, the transit-happy left pointed to the DC Metro as an example of how urban mass transit could be done.

In particular, they said?  It was less of a money pit than anticipated.

Unmentioned (except from the right):  they shaved money by deferring maintenance.  Equipment and facilities that were supposed to have a thirty-year service life has been soldiering on, deferring maintance, for forty years.

And it’s starting to cause problems; a series of public meltdowns including a train that spent an hour stuck under the Potomac river yesterday:

A female passenger on the disabled train told us she will no longer use Metro after this incident.

“Say no to Metro,” she said. “I haven’t done it in a while and to be on a brand new car – no … I got better ways to go. I’ve got two feet. I trust those better than I do Metro.”

Mass transit.  It’s great, provided you actually believe those who claim to know better than you actually know better than you do.

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Mitch Berg

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21 responses to “Home To Roost”

  1. Chuck Avatar
    Chuck

    All mass transit systems loose money, but some are still fairly well managed. Overall MetroTransit is rather well run.
    DC’s Metro is probably the most poorly run system in the nation. It only seems right that location of our federal gov’t and all of its bureaucracy, is also the location of a transit system that appears to be modeled after the Soviet Union or Venezuela. Even hardcore transit advocates have turned on these guys.

  2. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    40 years old isn’t that old for electric carriages–the South Shore ran its original electrics for about 80 years before they were replaced about 40 years back. Replace motors and contacts, yes, but when you’ve got 50 tons of steel per carriage, they tend to last. This is a sign of some pretty dangerous deficiencies, really, especially considering DC has a third rail and you want to be careful walking to safety, to put it mildly.

  3. Seflores Avatar
    Seflores

    A past client was a supplier to the DC Metro (WMATA). Their equipment came with a maintenance/up time program for the first few years built into the price (it was built with a predicted life of 30 years with regular maintenance). It is a fairly complicated piece of equipment and needs trained personnel to monitor the equipment and to do the work to prevent breakdowns.
    Metro officials had the option to keep them on doing maintenance for a contracted fee. Metro decided they could do their own maintenance, even though none of their employees was trained in maintaining or monitoring the equipment (or even managing the people who are trained). From what I understand, they now let the equipment break down completely, then have a ‘connected’ no-bid contractor come in and ‘dick around’ (technical term-sorry) because WMATA management has no idea what they are being charged for, while Metro’s customers suffer the lack of service and the system runs short on money paying these ‘connected’ firms.

  4. Bill C Avatar
    Bill C

    Just reinforces the (I believe) Milton Friedman quote: “If the government ran the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there would be a shortage of sand.”

  5. nerdbert Avatar
    nerdbert

    All disrespect to the DC Metro, having ridden it recently, I have to say that the whole system is incompetently run by boorish lummoxes who are capability of tying their shoes is questionable, much less their ability running an antiquated piece of early 20th century tech.

    But as a model of what political patronage and pandering can do, it’s a sterling example. But then, so is most of DC government.

  6. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    Wait a minute!

    Union workers get significant training that scabs don’t have. Wasn’t that the SEIUs argument for unionizing day care providers?

    What went wrong?

  7. Penigma Avatar
    Penigma

    Deferred maintenance and not paying for infrastructure is the hallmark of the right. What they’ve done with the Metro in DC is absurd and horrid, and entirely the wrong kind of management. Let’s see, who has been in charge in the US House for the majority of the past 30 years.. um, Repubs. Who controlled the Virginia state house for the majority of that time.. Repubs. Only in Maryland has is it been majority Democratic for that period. Further, and more importantly, government on the cheap, like practiced by TPaw and SWal, and South Carolina, and a host of red states beyond that, lead to subsistence level budgets for transportation which lead to crap roads, dilapidated and untrustworthy bridges and an infrastructure that companies are choosing to NOT locate or expand into (like Michelin in South Carolina).

    This is you complaining about a form of government you love Mitch. The irony here is that you otherwise applaud this type of approach. The chickens are yours and it’s your hen-house. Own up to it if you’re brave enough, rather than trying to blame those whom you so obviously hate for something which is really a manifestation of your style of government, writ small here, and writ large all over the country. You Repubs make good challengers in that you point out the flaws of government (so that they should and can be fixed) but you make lousy champions because your approach itself is so fundamentally flawed. It rests on the idea that government is basically flawed and mostly unneeded so you only address your areas of complaint and do nearly nothing to pay for what you use.

  8. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    Pen – I applaud your attempt to try to catch me in an inconsistency (or, as they are known in Logic class, the Tu Quoque Ad Hominem logical fallacy.

    Leaving aside that your point is a logical fallacy, it’s also wrong on every single point.

    I’m on the air as I write this, of course. When I get some time this evening, I’ll elaborate.

  9. Bento Guzman Avatar
    Bento Guzman

    “Deferred maintenance and not paying for infrastructure is the hallmark of the right.”
    This is not true. I live in a deep blue state. Both congressmen and senators are D. The governor is D. The state senate has 24 Democrats, 1 Republican. The state house has 44 Democrats, 7 Republicans. The majorities in all county councils are Democrats as are all the County mayors (with the exception of 1).
    Public infrastructure falls apart because simply maintaining existing property gets politicians nothing, compared to building new infrastructure. The state and county will allow existing buildings to literally become uninhabitable while they construct expensive, unasked for new buildings next door. This is because maintaining an existing building takes a few small contracts and a few maintenance employees. Putting up a new structure allows politicians and bureaucrats to award big contracts to construction firms. The trade unions donate money to politicians who want to build new crap.
    Every major metropolitan has infrastructure maintenance issues. Every major metropolitan is run by Democrats. The inability to prioritize is mark of Democrat rule, not Republican rule.
    Penigma should at least try to understand an issue before he publicly comments on that issue.

  10. swiftee Avatar
    swiftee

    Penis said “and an infrastructure that companies are choosing to NOT locate or expand into (like Michelin in South Carolina)”

    Yeah, well Penis it might be that with the recent arrival of Boeing, Mercedes, several US gun manufacturers, or the doubling of the massive BMW plant, that there wasn’t any tax sweeteners left to give entice the Frenchies, so they told SC to piss up a rope…

    But oh! Maybe not. What is this??

    Michelin Opens New South Carolina Manufacturing Plant

    World’s Largest Tires To Be Produced At New Facility

    GREENVILLE, S.C., Dec. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Michelin today held an event to mark the opening of its newest manufacturing facility in South Carolina. Michelin executives and employees were joined by dozens of dignitaries from across the state to celebrate the milestone just 17 months after breaking ground on the Anderson County facility, which will produce large tires for earthmoving equipment.

    The project completion is the fastest greenfield construction in Michelin’s history and enables the company to begin production of commercially available tires in January 2014 for sale in mid-2014.

    “Michelin continues to make investments in multiple countries around the world that will position our company for long-term growth,” said Pete Selleck, Michelin North America chairman and president. “It’s a source of pride to know that what we’re doing right here in South Carolina plays such an important role in our company’s global business strategy. It’s a testament to the business-friendly climate in the state and the dedicated, productive and skilled workforce that serves as the engine behind our success.”

    The new facility, known as US10, is Michelin’s 19th plant in North America and ninth in the state of South Carolina.

    You poor, pathetic bag of skin.

  11. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    OK, Pen – I said I’d respond,l and I will.

    Of course, Bento sums it up best, as he does so often: “Every major metropolitan has infrastructure maintenance issues. Every major metropolitan is run by Democrats. The inability to prioritize is mark of Democrat rule, not Republican rule.” It’s pretty universally true; dedicating new, expensive infrastructure as a monument to the sitting administration’s perspicacity is sexier than maintaining monuments to other administrations’ power.

    To be continued.

  12. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    Now, to Pen’s comment:

    Deferred maintenance and not paying for infrastructure is the hallmark of the right. What they’ve done with the Metro in DC is absurd and horrid, and entirely the wrong kind of management. Let’s see, who has been in charge in the US House for the majority of the past 30 years.. um, Repubs.

    DC’s city government sets the spending priorities for city, as opposed to federal, infrastructure. The Metro is not a federal joint. Sorry, Pen – swing and a miss.

  13. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    Next:

    government on the cheap, like practiced by TPaw and SWal, and South Carolina, and a host of red states beyond that, lead to subsistence level budgets for transportation which lead to crap roads, dilapidated and untrustworthy bridges and an infrastructure

    Roads and bridges are in better shape in Wisconsin than they are in Minnesota.

    Better example for you, Pen: North Dakota. When NoDak was raking in the money from oil exploration, the state’s vestigial NPL/Democrat party tried to push all sorts of infrastructure spending. The wiser heads of the NDGOP prevailed, knowing that booms eventually stop. As, indeed, it did.

    As a result, ND built the infrastructure it needed, at a pace it could sustain, without all sorts of triumphalistic monument-building…

    …like they did in the late seventies during the last oil boom, when the state had a Democrat governor (the twenty years between 1961 and 1981) and a semi-functional Democrat party that could still make demands.

  14. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    Next:

    that companies are choosing to NOT locate or expand into (like Michelin in South Carolina).

    I think Swiftee pretty well dispatched that claim. I won’t bounce the rubble.

  15. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    Onward:

    This is you complaining about a form of government you love Mitch.

    I always love it when people try to tell me what it is that I really think, love, believe and want. It makes for great entertainment. Not much else, but hey.

    The irony here is that you otherwise applaud this type of approach. The chickens are yours and it’s your hen-house.

    Well, if you ignore all the petty details, I suppose so – it’s true, in an utterly superficial way that ignores everything but the headline.

    Yep. I favor limited government and low taxes and spending. Saying that means that support government doing its few legitimate jobs poorly is a strawman – a distortion of my position, and a logical fallacy.

    I want the list of things government does, and can legitimately claim to need to do, to be as small as possible. Defend the country and its interests, maintain order (in a broad rather than microscopic, Big Brother-y sense), and build and maintain the basic infrastructure needed to support order and prosperity. Roads and bridges? Yep. Chrome-plated subways? Probably not.

  16. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    Next:

    Own up to it if you’re brave enough,

    For the substance: See above.

    As re the tone: “If I’m brave enough?” That’s just a skosh overdramatic, don’t you think?

    rather than trying to blame those whom you so obviously hate

    Pen – that’s another strawman, and kind of insulting. With all due respect, “telling people what they really think isn’t part of a civil discussion.

    That is an utterly civil, clinical suggestion.

  17. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    Next:

    for something which is really a manifestation of your style of government, writ small here, and writ large all over the country.

    Pen, please do me a favor: show us largely GOP jurisdictions – especially major, GOP cities – with infrastructure problems on the level of Detroit, DC, Baltimore, Oakland, Saint Louis, Camden, Newark or New Orleans.

    Here’s a better example: the headlines have been all full of the problems with the water supply in Flint – a water system built and “maintained” by a government that’s been Democrat for decades and decades. There’s a GOP governor who wasn’t born when the Flint water system was built, but no matter – that’s the city that’s been getting the headlines.

    As opposed to Newark, NJ, whose water problems are very nearly as bad as Flint’s – but you won’t see the media besieging Corey “The Next Obama” Booker, now, will we?

  18. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    Finally:

    You Repubs make good challengers in that you point out the flaws of government (so that they should and can be fixed) but you make lousy champions because your approach itself is so fundamentally flawed.

    I’ve asked, up above, for examples of GOP governments, especially major cities, with infrastructure issues as dire and fraught as those in DC and any other major Democrat city. I hope you’ll take a swing at it. It should be interesting.

    It rests on the idea that government is basically flawed and mostly unneeded so you only address your areas of complaint and do nearly nothing to pay for what you use.

    “Only address my areas of complaint” – not even sure what that means. This is a blog post, not a consulting report.

    “do nearly nothing” – yeah, I got the tax forms in hand to prove you wrong on that.

  19. swiftee Avatar
    swiftee

    Say Penis? Ya know what I like best about South Carolina? The low taxes, bustling economy, mountains, seashore, history, 2nd amendment cherishing, food, Confederate flag waving anti-federal government culture all are swell, sure.

    But what I like most, Penis, is the fact that most people down here would say I’m too soft on you lying, scummy, leftist cockroaches…bless your reprobate little hearts.

  20. Bento Guzman Avatar
    Bento Guzman

    The problem with the government controlling every aspect of your life (and that is the goal of socialism) is the same problem as having every aspect of your life controlled by for-profit corporations: their goals are not your goals. The goals of government are always in opposition to the goals of a significant part of society — or we wouldn’t need government at all. Government exists to take privilege from one group and give it to another group. There is no reason why government should be expected to do a better job of this than anyone else. There is nothing special about the ruling class of the United States in 2016 that makes them better at governance than a Medieval aristocracy.

  21. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    Yes, Penigma is entirely correct that conservatism causes infrastructure decay. That’s why 94 is wonderful in Wisconsin and Indiana, where Republicans fill the governor’s office, but nasty in Illinois, where until recently Democrats filled the governor’s office. My favorite example is how throughout my childhood, the highways around Chicago were filled with potholes despite being built on limestone that is hundreds of feet thick. It boggles the mind that you could do this, but in Chicago, with corrupt Democratic politicians dating back to the Depression, they do.

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