Photo by photographynatalia.

Metro is reporting some bad, but completely unsurprising news today but also some good-ish news. How about the bad first?

As Dr. Gridlock first reported, Metro said in an Operating Budget Performance Review prepared for its board that revenue for fiscal year 2013 was $853.6 million, $20.3 million below budget.

Of that total, approximately $6 million was due to rail and bus ridership losses from Hurricane Sandy and the unexpected Christmas Eve federal holiday granted by the President. Beyond those one-time events, reduced fare revenue on Metrorail, as a result of lower than projected ridership and the changes to the Federal Transit Benefit, were the primary drivers of the overall negative revenue variance. For FY2013, Metrorail fare revenue was $20.6 million below budget, while Metrobus fare revenue was $0.3 million above budget, and MetroAccess fare revenue was $0.6 million above budget. Parking revenue was below budget by $3.0 million or 6.1 percent due to lower than projected utilization.

Update: Metro spokesperson Dan Stessel notes that the system closed the year with a net positive position of $30.2 million because expenses were $50.5 million lower than expected.

209 million people rode Metro rail in fiscal year 2013, down from 218 million in 2012, and bus ridership stayed at a steady 132 million.

But in better news, Metro says more escalators are working now than anytime in the last five years.

For the 2nd quarter of the year (April through June), Metro achieved an availability score of 91.9 percent — meaning that more than nine of every ten of the system’s 588 escalators were in service during operating hours.

The current news is actually better than that. According to MetroEscalators’ Metro Metrics, 95.75 percent of escalators are currently available.

This year’s quarter two score is up from 2012’s score of 90.4 percent and way up from 2011’s score of 83.6 percent. The agency is crediting its “Metro Forward” rehabilitation effort for the gain.