Metro names interim general manager

Get There is reporting that Metro has appointed former New Jersey Transit chief Richard Sarles as interim general manager.

Sarles headed New Jersey Transit from 2007 until January, when he retired from the post. New Jersey Transit has 11,000 employees and an annual capital and operating budget of nearly $3 billion. Previously, Sarles had directed the agency's capital program for five years, and he had spent 20 years at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

That's good background for heading a 10,000-employee agency with the nation's second-busiest subway system and sixth-largest bus network, says columnist Bob Thomson.