The head of Washington, D.C.’s beleaguered Metrorail system recently told Congress his agency “had to move and move quickly” in launching an accelerated infrastructure maintenance program in 2016, despite lacking a budget or management plan to guide what could be a $118-million effort to restore the 118-mile system.

Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood will lead an independent review of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) in an attempt to find solutions to numerous operations, governance and financial issues that increasingly have compromised service on the 118-mile Metrorail system.