The financial problems with WMATA are almost entirely political and due to a dropoff in weekday ridership leading to lower fare revenue. The dropoff in weekday ridership can be largely attributed to the failure of Congress to restore the commuter tax benefit for transit riders to the same level as for parking for 2015. What that is about is rather complicated, so i won't get into it, but my point is how the heck could a financial specialist get Congress to fix the tax code? What WMATA needs, IMO, is a manager who can deal with and dive into correcting the maintenance, operations, and safety departments and the transit agency culture. Fixing a corporate culture is usually a very difficult thing to do, so finding the person who might be able to do that won't be easy.
I wonder how much the commuter tax benefit has to do with this. As a Fed, I still get $130 a month, even though my personal commuting cost is over $200. But I commute from Baltimore, which includes a $175 monthly MARC pass. And the MARC trains aren't showing signs of being empty (even though I don't know the ridership stats.) If you're riding only the Metro system, peak fares range from $2.15 to $5.90. For a 20-day month (or 40 rides), the monthly cost ranges from $86 to $236. Your $130 monthly allowance would cover any station pair with a fare of $3.25 or less. That would only cover the trip between Takoma or Friendship Heights and Metro Center, So yes, it is true that the current Federal employee transit subsidy is insufficient to fully cover the cost of a Metro commute for people living outside the District. On the other hand, we Feds get no parking subsidy, and I shudder to think what a monthly parking pass in downtown DC costs. Plus DC area traffic is atrocious. I've worked in DC for 15 years, and I have never, not once, driven my car to work.
I'm willing to think that the cutback in the tax benefit/transit subsidy may have affected some riders, but I think there are other factors at work. Personally, as someone who has been riding Metro off and on since the 1980s (and who became a regular rider around 2002), the quality of what's offered in terms of reliability and comfort have gone down the tubes. It's just not the same value proposition that it was 20 years ago, especially considering the fare increases. On the other hand, the trains running through the District are packed like sardines, especially the Red Line between Dupont Circle and Union Station. And somebody needs to do something about those #@&^%! doors. There's no reason for a door to open and close 3-4 times before the train leaves the station. 3-4 minute dwell times at a subway stop is not acceptable. We wont talk about smoke issue. Last week, they offloaded us a Gallery Palce because of that. Who needs that sort of thing? No wonder ridership is falling off.
As far as the topic of the thread, I agree with afigg, this has nothing to do with finance, and the new GM should be focusing on operations issues, and have enough political skills to wok the Maryland, Virginia and the District to build a political coalition with other states that have heavy transit use to restore the transit subsidy/tax break, and provide capital funding to rebuild the system. True, your average Member of Congress may not care so much because he or she has their own parking spot on the Hill, but their staffers don't have that luxury, and they have to get to work, too. But in the end, I think that the leadership should be focusing on operations and maintenance issues. If the system were run reliably and not pack 'em in like sardines only to get offloaded somewhere inconvenient, ridership would increase, and the financial situation would improve.
just like they did with Sarles. Or if they can stretch it out a couple of years, they could even have Ronnie Hakim 
