The clock is ticking for Metro. The transit agency announced on Monday that it will require $11.3 billion to keep things moving smoothly, according to a recently completed inventory of estimated needs between 2010 and 2020. The figure doesn't include possible expansion, and only six percent would go to "customer-oriented improvements."

It's not big news that WMATA says money is short and that a great many things are needed, but the depth and unbelievably short time period in which the system has to procure such a large amount of cash certainly is.

General Manager John Catoe put it this way, in one of our new favorite analogies: “Our crowded house is over 32 years old, and our needs go far beyond a spring cleaning and a fresh coat of paint. We have a wet basement, rusting pipes, cracked tiles, old wiring and the equivalent of a 1976 model car in a 100-year-old garage. Now we need to prioritize what gets fixed first.” It's an accurate way of putting it. There are some incredibly old cogs in the Metro machine that must be replaced - for instance, a century-old bus garage. Or vital things, like tunnels and platforms that won't crumble.

The estimated costs break out like so:

• "More than $7 billion to maintain the current bus, rail and paratransit system and deliver safe and reliable service." This includes replacement of one-third of the rail fleet, which is nearing the end of its lifespan, a new capital improvement challenge for Metro (it's easy to forget that this would be the first such mass-replacement in the agency's still young history). Though it's not exactly a revelation that new buses and trains would be arriving soon, it's still a substantive cost that the agency will need help to cover in the next decade.
• "$3.5 billion would be used to address growing ridership demands on Metro’s bus, rail and paratransit system during the next decade." Here's Metro's way of trying to find appropriate short-term solutions to carry about one million passengers per day without a costly and lengthy rail expansion. This includes power upgrades to finally complete the switch to exclusively using eight-car trains and pedestrian tunnels between close-lying stations. The Examiner quotes a figure of $110 million to link the two Farragut stations and Gallery Place and Metro Center.
• The remainder of the necessary funds - somewhere around $700 million - would go towards the previously-mentioned "customer-oriented improvements" - Metro cites some examples like security lighting, signage, and more card-friendly fare machines.

Photo by Jess J.

Of course, there's the $11 billion question: where is Metro going to be getting all this money? With the time constraints involved - Metro's current funding arrangements expire in a couple of years - and considering the current economic and legislative climate in certain key areas of the country - well, let's just say that billions of dollars aren't just sitting around for Metro to dip into.

Metro claims that they hope to "have a funding agreement in place by July 2010," but we're not sure what that's based on other than pure faith in governing bodies that have systematically denied transit's potential and growth time after time. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia have pledged $50 million annually to Metro beginning in 2010 - but with Maryland's rising deficit (already slashing transportation funding by over $1 billion statewide, no less) and Virginia's insipid legislative sessions, it isn't an exaggeration to think that $1.5 billion could end up being one-third that amount - or less.

The ugly local finger pointing has already started: D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) and Virginia Metro board rep Jeff C. McKay showed off their baby teeth; Evans threatening to kill the Dulles project (which he can't do on his own anyway), while McKay accuses D.C. of running Metro with an iron fist, and Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) just throwing up his arms in frustration in the corner. It's not a promising scene.

Federally, we all know the story. One doesn't have to think back too far to remember Metro's struggle to try and get the feds to even match that potential $1.5 billion, a bill which eventually stalled out in the Senate and prominently involved one of our least favorite members of Congress. Catoe is talking about attempting to double federal funding to about $550 million per year - so either he knows something we don't, or we could be in for a long next ten years.

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