Metro GM Says He's Not Afraid to Fire People Over Safety Problems: Report

Things are getting ugly for Metro with more safety problems prompting a federal agency to threaten to shut it down, and Metro's general manager said he's not afraid to fire people.

In an interview with WTOP, Paul Wiedefeld said that firings are "always and option" due to the ongoing safety problems. The comments come shortly after announcing a major plan that would overhaul the Metro rail system and would take up to a year, inconveniencing riders with single-tracking or even shutting down entire segments of track.

Wiedefeld said that if people aren't performing up to standard, "it's probably best for both of us to move along," he said according to the report.

The shutdowns will certainly have indirect effects, in that more people will be forced to drive or take the bus. Wiedefeld said that the plan may include additional bus service and parking regulations to help deal with this.

Metro has had eight smoke or fire incidents in the past couple weeks, all coming after Metro did a complete system-wide shutdown for more than 24 hours to deal with such issues once and for all. The Federal Transit Administration issued a new safety directive Saturday that demanded WMATA deal with these problems, and criticized Metro personnel for not following safety procedures.

Officials are worried that the smoke and fire incidents could result in deaths. In January 2015, a smoke incident at L'Enfant Plaza caused a train to fill with smoke, resulting in the death of a woman and dozens of injuries.

President Barack Obama weighed in on the issue himself during Friday's White House press briefing. When asked about the state of the Metro system, Obama said it was "just one more example of the underinvestments that have been made" across the country.

"The D.C. Metro historically has been a great strength of this region," he added. "But over time we underinvested in maintenance and repair and the steps that are being taken now — I’ll refer to the Department of Transportation — but I can say that obviously safety comes first and we want to make sure that if there are safety concerns that they’re addressed."

Obama tied it to the broader issue of nationwide transit maintenance, and brought up the situation in Flint as another example. He blamed Republicans for failing to take action to make money available for necessary infrastructure repair.