DC Metro Transit in Trouble

The Washington (DC) Metro Area Transit Authority is in trouble. Its equipment is in disrepair and it is broke. Why? Well, consider this.

The most common WMATA job, a bus operator, requires a driver’s license and a high school diploma or equivalent. The job pays an average of $63,000, with extensive benefits and overtime pay. This salary is 57 percent higher than the national average for transit system bus drivers ($40,160) and 66 percent higher than the average salary of a non-transit bus driver in the area ($38,000). With overtime, WMATA bus drivers can earn more than $100,000 a year. Wages and benefits consume nearly 78 percent of its operating budget, and the share would be larger still if Metro properly funded its employee pension liabilities. Metro spends $3.10 in labor costs for each passenger trip, compared with $1.92 in New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority and $1.88 in Boston’s Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

Anyone have an idea about how they might save some money? Anyone? Buehler? Anyone?

Where There's Smoke. . . There's Money Being Burned

According to the Washington Post, the number of  annual fires occurring in the country has fallen in half of the last 30 years while the number of career firefighters employed has risen by more than half.

                           Number of  Fires Annually       Number of Career Firefighters    Fires per Firefighter

1985                                 2.4MM                                      225,000                                    10.6

2015                                 1.2MM                                      360,000                                      3.3

% Change                          -47%                                          +57%                                     -69%


Are the firefighters we are hiring today just wimps?  Can't handle the task anymore?

Two words: Government Unions. The International Association of Firefighters brags that it is "one of the most active lobbying organizations in the country". And local governments cave in because, after all, who wants to be against firefighters? Or puppies? Doesn't this sound pretty similar to the NEA's constant whine to reduce class sizes for teachers?

The next time you see firefighters responding to something, notice how many of them show up. Usually two or three times as many as are needed.  Because they have nothing else to do. And the statistics above show you why.