Congressional lawmakers covered a lot of ground with WMATA leadership during a House Oversight Subcommittee hearing Tuesday, focusing on funding, Metro’s safety record, the ethics investigation into former board chair Jack Evans, cybersecurity concerns, and Metro’s operations and management.

Questions surrounding the ethics investigation and cybersecurity concerns took up a bit of the 90-minute hearing.

Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld, Metro Board Chair Paul Smedberg, Metro Inspector General Geoffrey Cherrington, and Washington Metrorail Safety Commission CEO David Mayer all testified.

Chair Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia,  said WMATA’s $40 billion bus and rail operation is essential to the federal government. Federal employees make up about a third of Metrorail’s peak-period ridership. But he said Congress has a responsibility to ensure WMATA performs safely and reliably.

Ethics Investigation

The committee wanted to know how and why the Metro board mishandled an ethics complaint against former board chair Jack Evans, who stepped down from his role in June. (Republicans on the committee repeatedly brought up Evans during the hearing on D.C. statehood in September.)

Connolly said Evans violated the public trust and the WMATA Board Code of Ethics, calling Evans “a walking billboard for the ethically challenged.”

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, said Evans’ behavior was bad, but he also had concerns about how the board handled the whole issue.

“As troubling as his behavior was, we are also focused on the complete breakdown in the transparency and integrity of the board’s own ethics process,” Raskin said.

Lawmakers say the board botched the ethics investigation and misled the public.

Smedberg, the current board chair, said the board is instituting reforms. From now on, he said, all ethics investigations will be reviewed by Metro’s Inspector General and a summary will be disclosed to the public.

Cybersecurity

Metro is currently in the process of buying new railcars, but lawmakers like D.C.’s Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton are skeptical of the Chinese manufacturers that are undercutting the market with cheap prices.

“We are concerned it would give an avenue for espionage,” Norton said. She wondered if Metro was taking the issue seriously enough.

Geoffrey Cherrington of Metro’s Office of Inspector General said the agency realizes there’s more at stake than just trains with D.C. being the nation’s capital.

“It may never happen, but we’ve raised the alarm bells,” Cherrington said. “And you’ve asked if we’re concerned, the OIG is concerned. Yes, ma’am.”

Smedberg said he’s letting management handle the procurement process and trusts they’re doing the right thing.

Metro expects to award the contract later this year with the first cars arriving in 2024.

Other Issues

Raskin wanted to know when late-night hours would return. Wiedefeld said they hope to bring up the discussion during budget talks this fall.

U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton, a Democrat from Virginia, was curious about fare increases and how the additional Silver Line Phase II would affect prices. Wiedefeld said the board reviews fare increases every two years and will do so again this fall.

“Our biggest focus though is getting people to use (SmartBenefits and pass products) that provide discounts,” Wiedefeld said. “The more you use the system, the more of a discount in effect that you get.”

He said Metro is also using more advertising revenue, station naming rights, parking passes, and other new revenues to help keep fares stable.

Connolly also highlighted the Fed’s proposed investment of $150 million annually for the next 10 years.

“We cannot afford a death spiral of disinvestment and declining service for the transit system that gets our federal workforce to work every day,” he said.

U.S. Rep. David Trone, a Democrat from Maryland who owns Total Wine stores, asked how Metro teaches its employees customer service. He said there have been a number of issues with service and asked what Metro is doing to improve. Customer service, Trone said, is how his stores “live and die.”

“It’s everything. I mean, we measure our customer service in my company, we have some 200-odd stores. We literally measure it every single month,” Trone said.

Wiedefeld said he wants to make customer service a big culture shift—raises are variable based on performance reviews and customer service gets a lot of attention during those reviews.

“We basically direct them, that (customer service) is what is expected of you,” Wiedefeld said. “And if not, then we go down a path that they do not belong with us, they’ve chosen not to buy into our culture of customer service, and that this probably isn’t the place for them.”

This story originally appeared on WAMU.