Metro is revising its budget to avoid reduced hours and service, but employee buyouts and layoffs are still likely.

Metro says it will have to cut 1,400 jobs to help fill a $177 million budget gap during the pandemic that has decimated public transit ridership. Metrorail ridership is down about 85% while Metrobus is down nearly 60% and isn’t collecting fares.

But WMATA will offer buyouts to encourage retirement-eligible employees to quit, to help stem the number of layoffs. The bonus to quit is $15,000.

“The last thing I want to do is have someone not have a job,” General Manager Paul Wiedefeld told the Washington Post.

He hopes buyouts could stem the number of layoffs needed. Metro also isn’t filling vacancies at the moment to save money.

Officials say they could hire those employees back if or when a second congressional stimulus bill goes through. The American Public Transportation Association says the industry needs $32 billion to stay afloat.

Meanwhile, Metro says it’s tightened its belt enough that it’s no longer considering an earlier closing time of 9 p.m. for Metrorail. More than 40% of those who participated in the public comment period said those changes were unacceptable.

One comment shared with the board reads: “I work at Tyson’s, travel from D.C. every day. I work at Whole Foods and I close the majority of the time at 9….I understand what’s going on … this decision on service hours affects a lot of people. Hours are already cut and it would be blasphemous to cut more.”

It’s also nixing turnbacks, which would have meant longer waits for trains at the end of the Red and Yellow lines. Board members from Maryland pushed back on that proposal because they had fought for years to end the practice.

Twenty Metrobus lines would also see more service. (You can see those on page 29 of Metro’s presentation).

Metro will go forward with some changes in the new year. Starting in January, Metro will resume front-door boarding and charging fares on buses. It has been using back door boarding since the pandemic began to protect bus drivers from exposure from passengers.

On weekdays, trains will run every 12 minutes on all lines except the Red Line where it would run every six minutes.

The transit agency’s board will vote on the budget Thursday with service changes going into effect Feb. 13 through June 30.

Metro has also already started the budget process for its next fiscal year, July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022.