MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Twenty managers of the Washington subway have been fired as part of restructuring prompted by safety problems in the Metro, General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Paul Wiedefeld said.
"As part of this restructuring, 20 managers are being released from WMATA, including seven senior managers," Wiedefeld said in an in-house email, as quoted by The Washington Post on Friday.
Over one third of those fired come from the subway operations, while others are from administrative areas.
The US Federal Transit Administration (FTA) assumed control of Washington DC’s metrorail system in early October 2015. The takeover took place after its summer report found that WMATA was significantly understaffed and chaotic.
Earlier this month, the FTA threatened to shut down all or parts of the US capital’s subway in response to its slow and inadequate response to smoke and fire.
Wiedefeld promised to improve the Washington Metro’s efficiency when he was hired as the WMATA general manager in November 2015.
