Metro’s Board of Directors unanimously approved the agency’s fiscal year 2021 budget on Thursday, but major questions remain about its implementation as the agency reacts to the coronavirus outbreak.

“It’s sort of surreal to be even doing the budget at this point,” said Loudoun County Supervisor Matt Letourneau, who represents Virginia on the board. The board cast their votes remotely.

If all goes as originally planned, the budget will take effect on July 1. That would mean changes in the fare structure on Metrorail, including a 10-cent increase in the peak base fare. The budget also includes increased weekend service on bus and rail, and a partial return of late-night rail service, among other things.

• On weekends, trains will run more frequently on Sundays under the proposal, comparable to Saturday frequencies now
• Customers will pay a flat $2 fare for weekend rail trips of any length
• Trains will run until midnight on weekdays, and until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights
• 22 Metrobus and MetroExtra bus lines will have increased weekend service

But all that could change dramatically, depending on the trajectory of the pandemic. Metro is losing a lot of money, even though it’s running reduced service: General Manager Paul Wiedefeld estimates that the agency’s current coronavirus-related budget deficit has ballooned to $67 million, including $2.5 million per day in lost fare revenue. That’s all due to dramatic declines in ridership as well as increased operating costs, as the agency ramps up cleaning on the system to try to mitigate the spread of the virus on public transit.

Despite the financial challenges, Wiedefeld told the board that he didn’t anticipate shutting down the system entirely amid the pandemic, “unless, of course, other circumstances overtake us,” including employee capacity, federal or state intervention, or public health concerns.

More service changes are expected next week. A full Metro shutdown is unlikely at this point, but would require a vote of the Metro Board, though Wiedefeld could make a more urgent call to do so if there were a pressing safety issue.

All the disruption from the coronavirus means that Metro will need to re-evaluate — and possibly re-work — the entire budget it just passed before it is implemented in July. That process will likely come in June.

“Clearly, it’s changing from day to day and minute to minute, and we will address that as we go into the future,” Wiedefeld told press on Tuesday. “Right now, we need to prepare a budget, we need to submit a budget, to local and state governments, but also for federal agencies, so we can start to line up grants.”

In the meantime, Metro will receive federal dollars from the coronavirus bailout, which apportions $1 billion to transit in the D.C. region. It’s not yet clear how the amount will be divided among Metro and other agencies.

But that money is targeted at keeping the system operating now, not into next year. Metro relies on state and local jurisdictions for subsidies to fund its budget — and those jurisdictions are taking a significant financial hit in the midst of the pandemic, too.

Letourneau said he anticipates the jurisdictions will struggle to pay the amounts the 2021 operating budget forecasts. The current expectation is for D.C. to contribute $481 million; Maryland jurisdictions to contribute a total of $507 million; and Virginia jurisdictions to contribute $330 million.

It’s also unclear how quickly Metro will be able to recover its ridership — and the revenue that comes with it — in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak. Ridership on rail is down 95% and ridership on buses is down 75% compared to this time last year.

Wiedefeld said he can’t predict if people will avoid crowded public transit vehicles after the pandemic is over, but he says history always shows a return to normalcy after time.

“We don’t see our essential role changing,” Wiedefeld said. “We can move thousands in a very short time.”

Another concern is coordinating some of the fare changes in the budget with other local transit agencies, which are also feeling the pinch due to the virus. For example, under the new budget, Metro will increase the discount on bus-to-rail transfers from 50 cents to $1. If other local bus services try to match that change, they’ll make less money — money they can ill afford to spare as they try to recoup their losses from the coronavirus.

“We simply can’t fail to take into account the impact our actions will have on our regional partners,” said Michael Goldman, a member of the board from Maryland.

This story originally appeared on WAMU.