Sarles outside Metro headquarters. Photo by Sarah Anne Hughes.

Outside Metro headquarters in downtown D.C., the agency’s general manager apologized to frustrated riders for the many delays they’ve endured.

“I will tell you our response time to [yesterday’s] incident, to fix the cause of it, was not acceptable,” Metro CEO and GM Richard Sarles told reporters of the hours it took to repair a low-hanging cable that made it impossible for trains to pass. “It’s not up to the level we’ve seen more recently.”

In the past two weeks, the Red Line has been snarled by three separate issues, including brakes locking up on a Metro train today and an oil leak last week. Sarles said they’d be addressing response times by reexamining how people tasked with repairs are deployed and “staged.” (“They have to come from a particular location and can be held up in traffic.”)

“Each of these three different incidents had different causes, unrelated to each other. But the effect on our passengers and customers is the same,” Sarles said, “some extraordinary delays, which I apologize for. As a rider myself, I know how frustrating it is to be delayed and have inexplicable things happen to you, like being offloaded from a train.”

Sarles, however, said that Red Line on-time performance is better this year than last year. “But that’s of no comfort if you’re a customer stuck on a train,” he said.

Customers who were inconvenienced by Red Line delays can contact the customer service department (202-637-1328) to ask for a refund.

The delays on the Red Line have been so bad this week that even Mayor Vince Gray weighed in on Twitter.

“I’d like to address the recent WMATA delays that have deeply disappointed & angered me while frustrating many of you,” the mayor tweeted. “First, WMATA (an independent, regional agency) despite facing budget pressures, needs to do better. WMATA is critical to our regional economy & getting to work/school on time is essential to your livelihood. As the District’s leader, I am continuing to work with WMATA to build a long-term capital plan that serves DC & the region. However, I do not serve on the board or have any operating authority over WMATA. Your Metro board rep is Muriel Bowser; I urge you to share your disappointment w/ her & GM/CEO Sarles as they make improvements.”

Update: In a brief phone interview, Councilmember Bowser said Sarles “got it right in speaking for the authority and the failures of the authority to respond, especially when a problem has been acted up by fixing it quickly to inconvenience passengers as little as possible. He was right to acknowledge the authority’s failure. He was right to apologize.”

However, Bowser said, “we all have to step up” around the region to address long-term solutions for a system that “hasn’t gotten the investment it needs.”

When asked what the board’s role is in insuring this happens, Bowser said the board put together the $26 billion plan to upgrade the system by 2040. “The board also has to oversee how the dollars are being invested now,” she said. “I think over the course of the last several years, more money has been rehabbing the Red Line, especially. … It needs attention and it needs it right now.”

As for Mayor Gray’s call for D.C. residents to contact her with their Metro concerns, Bowser said they already do. “We’re just as frustrated by any lack in service to our customers, as the next person is.” she said. “That’s why I go down into the board to make sure they’re using the resources. But more than that we have to make sure that they have the resources to fix the system.”

She also noted that the mayor appointed the board’s current chairman, Tom Downs.

“For the mayor to suggest that he has no role in Metro is really disingenuous,” she said. “It’s shirking of responsibility, to be more accurate.”