Metro To Investigate Top Manager After Audit Describes ‘Toxic’ And Dangerous Culture

Metro will conduct an independent review of a senior WMATA rail employee following an audit report that called Metro’s Rail Operations Control Center a “toxic workplace” with a culture “antithetical to safety.”

The audit, conducted by the Washington Metrorail Safety Commission (WMSC), found that senior rail operations leadership “regularly directed controllers to ignore procedures and checklists” that concerned safety. In particular, it said that on multiple occasions, Senior Vice President for Rail Services Lisa Woodruff “violated or instructed controllers to violate safety procedures.”

The audit also said that Woodruff told employees not to talk to the auditors and pressured workers to “paint a rosy picture” of the control center during an internal review.

“We take these allegations seriously,” Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld wrote in a memo to staff on Thursday. “For this reason, WMATA’s General Counsel has directed an outside law firm to conduct an independent review of the personnel matter.”