John Catoe, the much-reviled former general manager of Metro who resigned from the position in January under immense pressure, has returned to the transit agency. Well, sort of. more ›

As expected, the WMATA board today appointed former New Jersey transit chief Richard Sarles as its new interim general manager. more ›

Can't say we're surprised, but WTOP's Adam Tuss has the story: WMATA is having a difficult time finding anyone to take on the job of interim general manager. Tuss writes that "at least two internal candidates have been offered the top spot at Metro, but they have declined." Some external candidates have reportedly turned down the job, too. more ›

Metro board members Peter Benjamin, Jim Graham and Chris Zimmerman appeared on WTOP today and told reporter Mark Segraves they expect a search for a new General Manager will take six to nine months. John Catoe announced his sudden resignation last week, and the board admitted that they were taken by surprise. more ›

The president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, Jackie Jeter, offered this reaction to John Catoe's resignation.

"It is with some measure of trepidation that I look to the future of Metro’s management. With the sudden announcement that John Catoe will be leaving his position in four months, my concerns center on my membership and the riding public. Catoe’s imminent departure will only exacerbate the state of flux affecting those working to provide mass transportation to the Washington, DC metropolitan area and the customers who rely on Metro. more ›

Here's the statement from D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton upon learning of Metro General Manager John Catoe's decision to step down: "When the last General Manager of Metro was forced out, John Catoe inherited a Metro system in deep crisis. He showed considerable skill in keeping a floundering ship afloat while Congress waited for years, despite the urging of the region, to authorize funding essential for beginning to resuscitate Metro’s aging infrastructure, appropriated the first 10 percent only a few weeks ago. In stepping aside, Mr. Catoe has taken a principled step based on his view that new leadership would better focus the public on the challenges at hand. He may be right that the time has come for a crisis manager, but considering the perfect storm of a recession, decreasing ridership, increasing capital costs and the need for new revenue, Metro will be fortunate, indeed, to find a new General Manager not only equal to the task, but desirous of taking it on." more ›

Like several other local bloggers, I was on hand for a roundtable discussion on Wednesday evening with Metro General Manager John Catoe. My story on the meeting was basically done earlier today, and I had planned to post it just as soon as I gave it a polish after I got back from a lunch meeting. I was by no means expecting to return to my computer to discover that Catoe had suddenly resigned. more ›

Big breaking news this afternoon: WMATA general manager John Catoe has tendered his resignation, effective April 2. According to the Washington Post's Lena Sun, Catoe announced his decision to resign after a special board meeting this morning, saying that it would allow the transit agency to "move beyond distractions." Stay tuned for more. more ›

Metro General Manager John Catoe has released this lengthy statement on the future of the transit agency's safety standards, which he delivered to the WMATA board of directors today. In it, he declares a "war" to make sure the transit system is as safe as it can possibly be. more ›

Yesterday was Friday, so it's probably safe to assume that once 5 p.m. rolled around without any sign of the "very substantial management changes at Metro" promised by Metro Board Chairman Jim Graham, you all thought it was safe to take off, grab a beer, and deal with it on Monday. more ›

Metro's board of directors voted to renew General Manager John Catoe's contract for another three years at their meeting today, the Post is reporting. Presumably they managed to come to that decision before board chairman Jim Graham was pulled out of the meeting to deal with the fact that his chief of staff had been arrested. WTOP says the only vote against Catoe came from City Administrator Neil Albert. Catoe's annual salary of $315,000 will remain the same, according to WTOP. more ›

If you've get questions you'd like Metro General Manager John Catoe to answer about Monday's fatal Red Line crash, head over to his live chat, which started at 2:30 p.m. and lasts for an hour. Submit questions here. more ›

Last week, DCist's Andrew Wiseman reported that a NextBus beta site that had been operational for a brief time was removed after inquiries from DCist as to its authenticity. A couple of weeks before, we had asked Metro whether the information we found on the NextBus beta was old or new, and they told us we were looking at old data. Andrew then posted about the site on his personal blog, and a NextBus official responded in comments, announcing that the site was in fact a beta site for the future WMATA NextBus site, expected to formally launch later this year. more ›

Remember yesterday, when we noted that the Federal Transit Administration's tool for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of transit projects was slightly out of whack? Well, it looks like it's got some company in the "crazy" department, with new FTA regulations that effectively end Metro's ability to operate shuttle buses from stations to highly-traveled destinations. more ›

Just a few days after Metro's board gave preliminary approval to the restructuring of the 30s bus lines, the Examiner has a story reporting that Metro General Manager John Catoe is now shifting his attention toward improving Metrobus service after spending his first year focusing mainly on Metrorail. more ›

This is how Metrobus drivers are supposed to pull up to stops: flush with the sidewalk, and out of other lanes of traffic. But as anyone who either regularly rides city buses or drives in this city well knows, many, many times, Metrobus drivers instead just pull the front of the bus in to a stop, leaving the tail end blocking traffic from going forward behind them. more ›

Yeah, Zimmerman's walk-off was memorable. more ›

Last week, we wondered what happened to the planned "Take Metro to the New Ballpark" marketing campaign - well, that was quick. more ›

At the end of November, Metro's new rail chief, Dave Kubicek, decided to switch off-peak trains running during the winter months to the shorter, 4-car only versions as a cost-saving maneuver. Ridership is down in the winter, he reasoned, so Metro can get away with fewer cars. This morning Metro decided to scrap the entire plan and bring back 6-car trains immediately. Metro General Manager John Catoe told the Post he decided to restore service... more ›

Good Morning, D.C. Remember the news we told you about back in August, about an investigation into a potential prostitution ring at D.C. firehouses? Well D.C. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin acknowledged yesterday under fire from the D.C. Council that "sex for overtime" allegations in his department are "potentially true." The Council also expressed concern about the abnormally high rate of disciplinary action against African American firefighters in the department. African Americans were the subjects of... more ›

The Examiner reports on a new DMV program that would install SmarTrip chips into every new D.C. driver's license and identification card beginning in October, 2008. The program is a combined effort by the agency and WMATA, the latter of which has made no secret of its intention to make universal conversion to SmarTrip a priority. Recently Metro General Manager John Catoe made SmarTrip cards available for sale at more Giant Food stores and announced... more ›

Via WTOP's Adam Tuss, looks like Metro General Manager John Catoe is worrying about more than just budget shortfalls. Catoe says he's about to launch a new initiative to crack down on eating, drinking and chewing gum on Metro trains. "I have noticed (myself) and have received calls and letters that there has been an increase," says Metro General Manager John Catoe. "We are going to have a focused campaign from the standpoint of... more ›

Good morning, Washington. It's almost October, but in many ways it still seems like summer. For one thing, it'll be ninety degrees today. For another, there's news of Michael Vick's worsening legal situation. Yesterday Virginia indicted him and three others on dogfighting charges. Of course, we all knew that was coming sooner or later — less expected was word that a Canadian bank is suing Vick for defaulting on a $2.3 million loan. Potential... more ›

Good morning, D.C. With much of the hot political action this week taking place at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, it's our job to pull your focus away from trivial issues the mainstream media seem obsessed with, like global climate change, and bring it back down to what's really important at the local level, like complaining about how gasoline could be about to get really, really expensive in Maryland. What's that you... more ›

Bad news today for riders who use the 32 Metro bus routes that take part in the NextBus tracking system. Or, good news for those who are tired of the system giving out bunk information. WMATA plans to suspend the notification service by late October for up to 18 months, saying it's not accurate enough to expand as-is to the other 306 system routes, reports the Post. The program, which uses a GPS system to... more ›

We've arrived at another Friday, Washington, so welcome to it. Some sad news to note off the bat, however, as the Post brings word that the last movie theater left in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, the AMC Loews Dupont 5, will go the way of Visions and the Janus 3 before it and close its doors forever in January. We can certainly attest that the last few times we went to see a film... more ›

UPDATE: The Metro Board has put the proposed fare hikes on hold, saying they would like more details about the proposals before they would approve public hearings. They voted to hold a special informational committee meeting on Sept. 27. More than a year ago, then interim Metro Chief Dan Tangherlini began uttering those two little words no transit rider likes to hear: fare increase. At the time though, our favorite transit official was reassuring... more ›

Good morning, D.C. Yesterday was just about the most beautiful day, weather-wise, that the city has seen in a long time, and today we're expecting more of the same. So is there anything on God's green Earth that could cause us to lose the attendant sunny dispositions we all naturally have as a result? Oh, drat. It's Thursday. Metro General Manager John Catoe will appear before Metro's Board of Directors today and recommend raising minimum... more ›

Welcome back to work, Washington. We don't know about you, but we spent an awfully long time in the sun this weekend consuming too much food at various street festivals, so forgive us if we're still groggily pondering Saturday's news in WaPo that the fare change about to be proposed by Metro General Manager John Catoe is an "average increase" of 45 cents. That kind of increase would theoretically raise the base fare of a... more ›

>> ABC 7 reporter Kris Van Cleave is interested in your trash. [City Desk] >> D.C. paramedics treated 12 city employees who were overcome by exhaust fumes this morning. [WaPo] >> An ornate gold medal depicting an eagle, commissioned by George Washington and later presented to the Marquis de Lafayette, is to be sold at auction later this year. [AP] >> Metro General Manager John Catoe: ""The amount of the (fare) increase is something... more ›