Metro’s budget proposal includes a flat $2 fare on weekends.

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Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld is proposing more Metrorail service in his latest budget —  but he’s going to need some help and buy-in from the governments in the region.

In the proposal, released early Monday, Wiedefeld says he wants to:

  • Expand rush-hour level service 30 mins later in the morning until 10 a.m. and 90 minutes in the evening until 8:30 p.m. Metro thinks the more frequent trains will attract 1.2 million new trips and make the service more attractive to the non-9-5 commuters. Peak-hour fares would not be charged during those expanded hours.
  • Charge a flat $2 fare for all weekend Metrorail trips. Metro wants to reduce the cost since maintenance and rebuilding work often impacts weekend riders the most.
  • Increase service at suburban stations on the Yellow and Red lines.
    • Metro currently only runs about half of rush-hour Yellow trains to the north end of the line at Greenbelt. The proposal runs all Yellow line trains to Greenbelt, increasing service to nine stations.
    • Same goes for the Red Line where only half of the trains run to the end of the lines. Metro previously approved double service to Shady Grove by December and now it’s proposing to run all Red Line trains to Glenmont, doubling rush-hour service at an additional three stations.
  • Make all trains eight-cars long to reduce cramped cars. Some older trains currently only have six cars. The change would also streamline and standardize maintenance and trainyard operation.
  • Change the Metro unlimited bus and rail passes. All passes would get unlimited bus trips. Metro also wants to reduce prices for several passes (a 7-day bus pass would drop from $17.50 to $15, a 1-day pass from $14.75 to $13 and a 7-day pass from $60 to $58). Metro also wants to add a 3-day pass for $28.
  • Tighten the money-back guarantee for late trains. Riders with registered SmarTrip cards would get a credit for a future trip if they encounter 10 minutes of unscheduled delays. The current “Rush Hour Promise” gives credit for 15 minutes delays. And even those “delays” are complicated.

You can read WMATA’s fiscal year 2020 proposal here. The $3.4 billion budget is made up of a $2 billion for operations and a $1.4 billion in capital projects. Metro’s operating budget is a 5 percent increase over last year.

The proposal comes at a time when ridership has decreased significantly, largely during the off-peak hours as service has decreased. Metro has cut late-night service to increase the amount of time it has to work on maintenance issues. It’s also shut down swaths of the system to work on entire stretches of track and stations.

“The past year has been about demonstrating to customers that we are getting Metro ‘back to good,’” Wiedefeld said in a Metro release. “Now, we have to get better than good as we work to attract and retain customers.”

But while a number of items, like lower pass prices and the return of automatic train operation, can be done in-house, the service improvements, like longer rush hour service, will need regional support and the board approval.

About that 3 percent subsidy cap

Metro will have to come up with a way to fund all these proposals.

When Metro secured $500 million a year in new capital funding from Virginia, Maryland and D.C., the money came with a caveat. Virginia and Maryland didn’t want their share of funding to keep ballooning by 8 percent a year as it had in the past. Instead, it said their subsidies could only grow by 3 percent a year.

Metro could either cut other services, or raise fares, but Wiedefeld says he doesn’t want to do that.

Metro says the proposed budget meets subsidy cap restrictions put in place by dedicated funding legislation in Maryland and Virginia. The proposed service improvements will need to be considered by the board as a policy decision to receive $20 million in funding above the cap.

Just how much it will all cost has not been released. And it’s unknown if the jurisdictions are willing to play ball.

Metro Board Chair Jack Evans says the board needs to see what level of service the jurisdictions can afford.

“There is no question that we need to improve service levels to rebuild ridership, and we need to consider how to do it without raising fares, which has the effect of discouraging people from riding,” Evans said in Metro’s release.

Metro is spending $46 million above the cap, but aims to offset that by finding efficiencies and cost cutting through using contracted services instead of union workers in some areas, streamlining admin and increasing revenue other than from fares.

In Metro’s budget presentation it says, “ridership uncertainty is another risk, due to changes in trip-making and the broader transportation market (telework, alternate modes, gas prices, etc).”

One other risk? The federal government hasn’t reauthorized the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act, a major source of funding for Metro. If Congress doesn’t reauthorize it, local jurisdictions will need to make up $750 million a year for the next five years to pay for Metro’s needs.

Praise, criticism for the budget

Some Metro watchers say the proposals have merit, but want to see the exact numbers of how Metro plans to fund it all.

Others said the service levels still have a long way to get back to where it was pre-SafeTrack. Some wanted to see increased headways — the amount of wait time between trains — during late nights and weekends where it can take up to 20 minutes for a train to arrive.

Arlington County board member and Metro board member Christian Dorsey says he’s all but given up riding on the weekends and called the 25-plus minute headways “demoralizing” for riders.

“For me, it’s not a $2 flat fare that’s going to drive me to increase my use on the weekend,” Dorsey said. “It’s having that ability to be a lot more convenient… And that means reducing headways.”

He said Metro has to figure out a way to deliver both maintenance and service on the weekends.

Dorsey also said he wants to see the business case for each proposed service change. He said the whole reason for the subsidy cap was so that Metro costs don’t continue to eat into localities’ other priorities.

D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen noted the absence of longer late night hours, off-peak rail service and improving bus service.

“Doesn’t seem to focus on increasing service and ridership for everyone,” Allen tweeted.

Stewart Schwartz, director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, a D.C.-based, pro-transit advocacy group, said the proposals are a step in the right direction, but train frequency still needs to be addressed.

“While the reduced weekend fare is welcome, better still for ridership would be an increase in frequency,” says Schwartz. “We’d like to better understand whether alternate approaches to maintenance could allow for reduced single-tracking.”

Here’s what others had to say:

 

 

 

 

 

Board discussion starts Thursday

This is just the first step for Metro’s fiscal year 2020 budget.

It goes to the finance committee on Thursday for discussion. That’s followed by months of deliberation before a final board vote in March.

Dorsey said Wiedefeld’s proposal is a good starting point.

“We have to maintain an organization that is fiscally sound and sustainable while at the same time being attractive enough to entice new people to it,” Dorsey said. “That’s a difficult thing.

“The budget process will refine this in a way so that we can meet both of those goals.”

Approved changes will take effect July 1, 2019.

This story originally appeared at WAMU. 

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