Metro Drops Longtime Manager

White, 53, who declined to speak to reporters yesterday, has told his staff that he is considering job offers from the private sector.

His arrival at Metro marked the pinnacle of his career. He had spent years working as a federal bureaucrat, then as a manager at New Jersey Transit and later as the top executive at Bay Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco before he was tapped for the key job at "America's subway" in the nation's capital.

He is widely credited with saving the Metrobus system from collapse and with keeping Metro running during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when police were advising the subway system to shut down. "Dick White has done a tremendous job for nearly a decade at America's best transit system," said Pierce R. Homer, Virginia's transportation secretary.

White didn't spend much time mingling with the rank and file; he talked to policymakers about Metro's role in the region and the need for local governments to create reliable funding for transit. Because of his efforts, the D.C. Council has approved dedicated funding for Metro, and the legislatures in Richmond and Annapolis are expected to discuss it during the coming sessions.

"He was part of the whole regional dialogue about highways and land use and everything else, which I thought was terrific," said Ron Kirby, chief transportation planner at the Washington Council of Governments. "He got this issue of adequate funding on the radar screen. . . . That was a pretty heavy lift."

White has acknowledged that he grew distracted from the nuts and bolts of the buses and trains, on which 1.1 million commuters depend each day.

"The whole issue of how you make the trains run on time and get the escalators working -- it's been a long time on some of those things, and that's probably what hurt him," Kirby said.

T. Dana Kauffman, who represents Fairfax County and chairs the Metro board, said that Tangherlini can make any kind of changes he deems necessary and that the interim position could become permanent. "This is not a caretaker role," Kauffman said. "We need a dynamic individual to be able to respond to these challenges. . . . He needs to do whatever he needs to do to make this organization work."

Tangherlini, 38, lives on Capitol Hill and is a daily rider of the Metro system. White drove to work from his Fairfax home in his Metro-issued SUV until he was pressured by the board to resume daily commuting on the Orange Line in 2004.

Where White was a self-described introvert, Tangherlini is easygoing and approachable. "He's a personable guy," said Bob Grow of the Greater Washington Board of Trade. "He's easy to talk to and work with. Not that Dick wasn't, but I have a closer working relationship with Dan."

Metro's top manager must answer to local and state governments in Virginia, Maryland and the District, as well as the federal government. The chief executive also must manage a workforce of 10,000.

Tangherlini isn't afraid to try new things. He launched the D.C. Circulator, a bus service with two lines that are designed to better connect parts of the city that aren't well served by Metro. He also is working to build a light rail line in Anacostia, the first of its kind in the region.

"It is amazing what he and his team have accomplished in a short period of time," said his boss, D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams.

Before working in the city's Department of Transportation, Tangherlini was chief financial officer for the D.C. police department. He also has worked as a senior program analyst at the U.S. Department of Transportation and has worked in the Office of Management and Budget.

Jack Corbett, co-founder of a Metro riders group, said Tangherlini differs from White in at least one important way: He rides Metro. "One of the things our people talk about is how often we run across him on the bus system and the rail system," Corbett said.

Staff writer Steven Ginsberg contributed to this report.