Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld is out at WMATA, 45 days before his scheduled retirement. So is WMATA Chief Operating Officer Joe Leader, who resigned Monday.

The news comes a day after Metro said that it let safety re-certifications lapse for half of its 500-plus rail operators. Seventy-two operators were taken off the rails because they hadn’t completed classroom and on-track re-training in more than a year.

Metro Board Chair Paul Smedberg released a statement late Monday night, saying the board accepted Wiedefeld’s decision to make his retirement effective today, saying the “timing is right.”

WMATA is in transition, announcing the hiring of Austin, Texas transit CEO Randy Clarke as its new incoming general manager just last week. He will not start until later this summer. In the meantime, Andy Off, executive vice president of capital delivery, will serve as interim general manager.

“Safety is and will continue to be our top priority. We will look to Andy’s leadership to ensure we continue on this path,” Smedberg said.

Wiedefeld said retiring early is in the best interest of the agency and its workforce, “whom I have been deeply proud to lead over the last six years.” In the statement, Wiedefeld also said it will give Off a better chance to “address the challenges that came to light this week while preparing for the transition to the next CEO.”

Leader served as Metro’s chief operating officer for nearly six years, a job that entails managing rail, bus, and paratransit services and Metro Transit Police, parking, and support services. The New Yorker spent nearly 30 years at NYC’s MTA before consulting and then joining Metro.

Metro said the re-certification waivers began during the pandemic and also that some of the delays they faced were due to requirements for social distancing and lack of available trains to use for training purposes. A Metro spokesperson said senior management was unaware of the ongoing recertification delays.

Wiedefeld came to Metro as a backup choice in 2015. The initial hire to replace Richard Sarles turned down the job after learning of how much scrutiny the position gets. Just five months after starting, Wiedefeld shut down the entire rail system for a day for emergency inspections of power cables after a fire.

“While the risk to the public is very low, I cannot rule out a potential life safety issue here, and that is why we must take this action immediately,” Wiedefeld said back in March 2016. “When I say safety is our highest priority, I mean it. That sometimes means making tough, unpopular decisions, and this is one of those times.”

In 2016, Wiedefeld launched a year-long program called SafeTrack, which shut down multiple sections of track in order to fix what was three years of maintenance backlog in one year. It was one of the major service disruptions during his tenure.

But changing a safety culture continued to vex Wiedefeld and the Metro board. Some strides were made in improving the system, but there were also missteps.

In 2017, Wiedefeld fired 21 members of the track inspection team who falsified reports. Several were reinstated during the arbitration process.

Then in 2018, he secured $500 million in annual dedicated funding for WMATA from Maryland, Virginia, and D.C., a big win for Metro’s capital program, which had been underfunded over the years. That summer, he successfully negotiated a new contract with Metro’s largest union, but not before the union voted to authorize a strike. Workers never left the job, but it put commuters on edge for days.

In 2020, he faced the pandemic, which not only included health concerns for the workforce, but also an existential crisis unseen before: ridership plummeting to about a fifth of what it was as workers stayed home. It created financial hardships for the transit agency and led Wiedefeld to pitch a drastic reduction — cutting weekend service, shuttering stations, and more — before the federal government bailed the system out with federal relief.

Also in 2020, Wiedefeld replaced the leadership of the Rail Operations Control Center, which was the focus of a Metrorail Safety Commission report that described a toxic workplace where critical safety information was not shared in a timely fashion.

Then in October 2021, a 7000-series train on the Blue Line derailed when the wheels moved too far apart. No one was hurt, but the National Transportation Safety Board said it could’ve been a catastrophic incident. The NTSB said Metro knew about the problem that grew over several years. The Safety Commission ordered all the cars, nearly 60% of the whole fleet, sidelined, creating more service delays for riders.

Throughout his career, Wiedefeld often said that “safety trumps service.” But now he leaves 45 days before his retirement largely because of one thing: a lapse in safety protocols.

Wiedefeld was generally praised by Metro’s board and other public officials throughout his tenure, though it seemed some sentiment changed in recent months as the transit system slogged through the 7000-series train ordeal, the safety lapses, and more. Mayor Muriel Bowser tweeted Monday that these problems are “not a funding issue; it is a management problem.”

Wiedefeld will not see through major projects including the opening of the Silver Line Phase II, the opening of the Potomac Yard station nor the return of the 7000-series trains, which are set to return sometime this summer.

“I wish the men and women who move this city continued success,” Wiedefeld said. “I am also very grateful to Metro’s customers, stakeholders, and Board for your support.”

Wiedefeld retires as the highest-paid transit CEO in the nation, earning nearly $528,000 in his final year as general manager. His contract does not include any “golden parachute” for retirement, just his standard deferred compensation. He also gets free Metro rides for the rest of his life. The contract includes a non-disparagement clause that goes for both Wiedefeld and the board. It ends one year after his final day of employment.