If you have been following along here, you know that I have been railing (no pun intended) about WMATA insisting on keeping the 1000 series cars in service even after the NTSB told them of the crash dangers.
Today, I finally got the answer that Jim Graham and others don’t want to address.
Tax Shelters Slowed D.C. Metro Upgrade
Washington transit authorities failed to upgrade aging rail cars in part because of tax-shelter deals, triggering charges days after a fatal train crash that financial concerns were outweighing passenger safety.
The National Transportation Safety Board recommended in 2006 that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority either accelerate retirement of some of its oldest rail cars or rehabilitate them. The authority responded in 2007 that it was “constrained by tax advantage leases, which require that WMATA keep the 1000 Series cars in service at least until the end of 2014.”
If the agency had wanted to break the leases, said Chief Financial Officer Carol Kissal, it would likely have had to pay penalties and fees on top of the cost of buying newer rail cars.
Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa in a letter to Maryland congressman Steny Hoyer nailed this entire situation on the head:
“It would seem … that WMATA disregarded risks to passenger safety in order to fulfill a contract entered into as an accommodation party to a tax shelter,” Mr. Grassley wrote. “By entering into tax-shelter contracts, the WMATA appears to have allowed banks — rather than experts on passenger safety — to dictate what kind of trains Metro riders use.”
Amen, senator.
This is why Jim Graham has vehemently defended the use of the 1000 series cars and this is the reason those cars have been put in the middle of the trains rather than thrown on the scrap heep.
The financial bottom line is to be protected at all costs. Protecting the Metro rider’s life is a much smaller percentage of the equation.
Money is indeed the root of all evil.
Hat-tip: Washington City Paper City Desk Blog
Tags: city desk blog, leases, metro crash, metro rail, metro tax shelter, steny hoyer, washington city paper, wmata
