Press Release: WMATA’s Private Contractor Transdev is Sending Out Uninspected Vehicles

(Forestville, MD) September 19th, 2019 – Our union organizers at the Transdev-managed Cinder Bed Road Bus Garage discovered that several buses and maintenance vehicles at the facility have been repeatedly sent out on the roads but either had expired state inspection stickers or no inspection stickers at all. 

ATU Local 689 visited the facility in April 2019 to conduct a bus safety inspection but the company called Fairfax County Police on our officials and kicked us off the property. Local 689 has also sent requests to Transdev management for bus maintenance records but these requests for information have been ignored. We believe that these uninspected vehicles are further evidence of Transdev’s lack of concern for the safety of its passengers and riders. Workers have told us that the General Manager’s own company car does not have a safety inspection sticker. Workers can be penalized and risk losing their Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDL) if they are found to be driving an uninspected vehicle. Each one of these vehicles needs to be towed to an inspection station before it can be returned to passenger service. 

This discovery is particularly concerning considering the Transdev garage’s recent history with bus fumes causing passengers and riders to become ill. The repeated incidents led to one hospitalization and one additional operator to seek medical attention. The Cinder Bed Road facility is dramatically understaffed with maintenance staff, a result of the low pay and poor working conditions in the facility. Transdev has recently started to bring in outside subcontractors to supplement its maintenance staff instead of hiring regular workers at a fair wage. 

We encourage transit riders to ask the question: Why would WMATA allow a private company to repeatedly place its cost-cutting needs ahead of the safety of passengers and workers? 

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Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 is comprised of more than 13,000 members and retirees performing occupations within the many skilled transportation crafts for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), MetroAccess, DASH, and the DC Streetcar. A member of the Amalgamated Transit Union (AFL-CIO/CLC), the largest labor organization representing transit workers in the United States and Canada, Local 689 was established on January 19, 1916. For more information please visit our website at atulocal689.org.