Photo by quigley_brown (Jim Hamann).

Somewhat lost in the shuffle of the District’s attempts to close a $322 million budget gap is the fact that WMATA is dealing with a somewhat sizable gap of its own — $72 million, at last count. So what measures are the WMATA Board of Directors considering to close that deficit?

According to WTOP’s Adam Tuss, the board brainstormed up a few ideas during an “emergency” conference call this morning. While the board was firmly against instituting an across-the-board fare increase or selling naming rights to stations to raise revenue, they did discuss the concept of charging a five-cent surcharge to riders using some of the busiest stations in the District, Virginia and Maryland. (Tuss noted that the board singled out Union Station, but that the surcharge “would likely apply to 2 stations in each jurisdiction.”) Metro apparently doesn’t consider the idea a “fare increase,” because the extra revenue would be funneled into infrastructure projects like improving escalators — but best of luck convincing anyone paying more that it isn’t, guys.

The proposal, along with several other proposals to help close the deficit — like increasing the time between trains on Saturdays to 18 minutes during the day and 25 minutes at night, and cutting the K1, M4, N8 and E6 bus routes — will likely be ready for public comment at some point in the near future. We’ll be sure to let you know when, precisely, that happens.