Under the leadership of former WMATA Chief Richard White, the transit agency wasn’t known for being particularly user-friendly. And while steps were taken to open the agency to commuter advice and scrutiny in White’s latter years — townhall meetings were hosted, online chats occurred and the Riders Advisory Council was created — Metro seemed somewhat insulated from the day-to-day troubles that its many riders experienced.

That’s changing. WMATA’s Interim General Dan Tangherlini, former head of the District Department of Transportation, has kicked off his tenure in a very public way. When he took over in early February, he made a point to visit with Metro’s rank-and-file, a move that led the Post to call him “outgoing and approachable.” More recently, Tangherlini led a group of curious residents around an area Metro station, teaching them some of the ins and outs of operating the system’s rail network. And now ads have started popping up in Metro stations with an image of him sitting in a rail-car holding a brochure on them, next to a message reading:

I’m Dan Tangherlini, Metro’s intertim general manager. If you have a question or suggestion about Metro, we want to hear it. For easy ways to contact us, pick up this brochure in a Metrobus or Metrorail station.

We can’t help but give Tangherlini a round of applause for this initiative. While it will take much more than a few appearances and ads to fix Metro’s problems, we see it as a step in the right direction that its top guy is willing to make himself known to the public.

Picture snapped by DC Rob.