(Photo by p2-r2)
By Jordan Pascale and Natalie Delgadillo
After promises to the contrary, the Metro board will dissolve the Riders’ Advisory Council, a group of 21 people meant to give the board riders’ perspectives on the agency’s services and potential new policies. The Washington Post first reported on Wednesday that Metro was dissolving the council to focus on feedback from its newer online community, Amplify.
During Thursday’s Metro board meeting, the chair of the council addressed the group’s dissolution.
“For most of you, this is goodbye,”council chairman Katherine Kortum said at the meeting, adding that while the RAC had not been as effective as it might have been, it was a work in progress.
The Metro board of directors established the RAC in 2005. It consists of six members from Maryland, Virginia, and D.C., two at-large members, and the head of another Metro committee. The positions are filled by volunteers who apply to advise the board. In the past, the Council has held public meetings on potential policies like bag searches.
The Post reports that the council was instrumental in implementing the 15-minute grace period on station entries and exits, which Metro put in place in 2016. The group has also been vocal on late-night service cuts, Blue Line crowding, and fare increases, but at times has experienced a lack of participant interest and support from Metro, according to the outlet.
The Riders’ Advisory Council has been under a cloud of uncertainty for the past year, but Metro board chair Jack Evans had assured the group that it would stay.
So what happened?
“The RAC exists because the social media didn’t exist back in the day,” Evans told the Post. “We’re moving ahead with bringing them into the future so to speak.”
The Metro board is expected to vote on the change at its October board meeting. RAC member Colin Reusch said he’s unsurprised but disappointed by the move.
“On the whole, I think this move only weakens their credibility in the eyes of riders and the public,” Reusch said.
Reusch is in the Amplify group, which Metro describes as its first “customer community,” and mainly consists of online surveys and forums where riders discuss issues with the agency and its service.
But Reusch said there is rarely any real way to participate in Amplify, and it doesn’t replace meaningful conversation between riders and Metro.
“You’ll get an email survey every now and then,” Reusch said. “But there’s really no transparency to the whole thing, and it certainly isn’t a replacement for rider advocates.”
The move comes at a time of significant governance restructuring in Metro. Its board was recently cut in half because of state legislation, and alternates were eliminated.
Lawmakers said oversight was too clunky and there wasn’t enough accountability because there were too many cooks in the kitchen.
