D.C. Council member Jack Evans has been elected chairman of Metro's Board of Directors.
Evans was elected unanimously at Thursday's Metro board meeting.
The board came under scrutiny after a series of safety lapses on the nation's second-largest transit network. Last January, an electrical malfunction caused a train to fill with smoke inside a downtown Washington tunnel, killing one passenger and sickening dozens more.
The board also struggled to find a new general manager for the agency. Paul Wiedefeld took over in November after Metro was under interim leadership for almost all of 2015.
The 16-member board includes appointees from the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and the federal government. Evans was appointed last year.
Evans, a Democrat, has prioritized securing more federal funding for Metro.
