It's pretty difficult to keep anything in "good working order" with a vanished tax base. The city government up until very recently pretended for decades to its own detriment with accounting gimmicks that it was a fiscally sound that it seems like every department of the city has been shortchanged in some way. This results in the city not doing any one particular thing well, and transit has been no exception.
What's a bit worrisome, here, is that the longer the region keeps uncomfortably dodging forming a regional transit authority, the longer DDOT will have in running the new Woodward Light Rail, which starts construction in a few months. And, well, if that's the case, it doesn't stand much of a chance. The sad thing is the state legislature passed the regional mass transit plan that allow the region to form the authority over two years ago, now.
BTW, anyone interested in Woodward Avenue light rail, the Draft EIS was released the other day:
Woodward Avenue Light Rail Draft Environmental Impact Study