Via Urban Institute: “The nation’s second-busiest heavy rail transit system, the Washington, DC area’s Metro, is in crisis. This is a long-term crisis, occasionally punctuated by national headlines, like when smoke filled a train killing one passenger in January 2015, or when nine people died in a crash in June 2009. In both cases, the tragedy was preventable: in the former, a damaged cable caused the smoke while poor communication delayed aid; in the latter, a critical circuit malfunction wasn’t detected. [March 16, 2016], Metro is again in the news, this time for taking the unprecedented step to shut down the entire rail system for 29 hours for emergency inspections and repairs. The system’s deficiencies also create countless non-fatal yet incredibly frustrating daily performance and safety issues like service delays, months-long escalator outages, and dangerous platform overcrowding. The problem is clear, well documented, and dire. Metro’s new general manager, Paul Wiedefeld, has been refreshingly candid about the system’s deficiencies, telling the Washington Post that “turning Metro around requires us to confront some hard truths.”