Metro Board members Stephanie Gidigbi and Michael Goldman say WMATA’s proposed service cuts are too drastic and its ridership predictions are too conservative given the news of a pending widespread vaccine that could lead to increased ridership. They urged Metro to wait for Congress to act and inject much-needed funding, which could fend off a major budgetary gap for the transit agency.

The board got its chance Friday to respond to General Manager Paul Wiedefeld’s proposal for the July 2021-June 2022 budget that would cut rail service to 20% of pre-pandemic levels and bus service to 45% of pre-pandemic levels. Metro is currently running at about 50% of pre-pandemic rail service and 75% of pre-pandemic bus service.

The budget attempts to fill a $495 million funding gap through service cuts, created mostly because of low ridership and fare revenues, as well as increased costs associated with the pandemic.

To recap: The budget calls for eliminating weekend rail service, closing the rail system at 9 p.m., running trains only once every 30 minutes on each line, closing 19 stations that have low ridership or are near other stations, instituting “turnbacks” that create longer waits for suburban stations on the Red Line, eliminating the Yellow Line north of Mt. Vernon Square and stopping the Silver Line spur at Ballston. It also includes bus cuts that eliminate or limit service on many routes.

Phew.

Metro is hoping to avoid the cuts through another federal relief package, but the outlook on that is unclear. WMATA Board Finance Committee Chair Steve McMillan said management had to come up with a plan based on what they know now. He described the budget as “tough medicine for many of our stakeholders.”

“But we have a responsibility to budget with the dollars we have available and provide the most logical and meaningful service that we can within those constraints,” he said.

Michael Goldman, a board member from Maryland, said the budgetary “sausage-making machine” made something that is inedible.

“Inedible to the point that I wouldn’t want to put it out to the public for comment at this time,” Goldman said. “I think the ridership revenue forecast for fiscal year 2022… is too conservative.

“It causes too much pain.”

Stephanie Gidigbi, who represents D.C. on the board, argued that Metro needs to be more creative with solutions. Nearly 300,000 trips a weekday are happening on Metro and she said the agency should highlight how safe the system is and show riders who feel comfortable riding now.

“I think it’s important for us to tell that story versus letting folks have to plan for the reality that you won’t be able to get anywhere on the weekends or at night,” she said. “That’s not the right message for this moment.

“I think we need to have a little bit more of a visionary space [during the budget discussions].”

Later she said, “I hope that we can really think about the type of message that we want to put out when we go to public comment,” she said, ‘that really speaks to what we are doing, not just what we’re cutting and ensure that we emphasize that ‘we’re ready for you right now.'”

Wiedefeld argued that Metro surveys show many riders won’t be comfortable on the system until there is a widespread vaccine.

Gidigbi also implored Metro officials to wait to begin the public comment period for a few weeks in hopes that Congress would pass federal relief before the end of the year.

Wiedefeld said he wanted to keep the budget process on schedule to give Metro employees and riders plenty of time to adjust their personal and professional lives around the new reality. Metro is proposing eliminating another 2,400 jobs after already approving a cut of 1,400 positions. He also wanted to give localities, which are also going through their own budget processes, some idea of what Metro is seeking in terms of subsidies. Metro is looking for the legally allowed 3% increase from its member jurisdictions.

The General Manager also said if federal funds do come before the public comment period, then WMATA could ask what service they want to see that money spent on.

The board meets again next Thursday to decide whether to put this proposal forward for public comment or wait.

Meanwhile, the six other board members were more understanding of the choices management is having to make with ridership at historic lows. But they did want to know more details about the proposal — how much does closing stations save money? What savings are achieved with the turnbacks? Wiedefeld said he’d look into it.

Matt Letourneau, who represents Virginia on the board, said he was frustrated with the tenor of conversation from the board since the group instructed Wiedefeld to be conservative in his budget.

Maryland Transportation Secretary Greg Slater said transit agencies across the state and nation are also staring down big budget cuts due to the pandemic. He worries that potential good news, with the timeline of a rollout of a vaccine, won’t line up with service cuts from Metro.

“But cuts of this magnitude are really going to make it tougher [for riders] to return,” he said.

Goldman agreed, saying he would’ve put Metro’s ridership projections at a 65-70% increase by June 2022, rather than the projected 34%.

“I think we should be following the science and the science and the scientists seem to be telling us that things are going to be a lot better by next summer,” Goldman said. “We should reflect that optimism.”

The board also got a more complete picture of what bus service will look like in July, if the budget is approved as it stands.

Bus ridership has been much higher than rail during the pandemic, but Metro will reduce the bus system down to a number of essential routes. Virginia, for instance, will only have 10 routes in total.

Board members asked WMATA to work with other local transit agencies like CUE, Dash, Ride On and others around the region to spread out as much service as possible.

Slater said many localities are worried about the isolation of no-car households in places like Suitland, Bowie. Others worried about how reduced bus routes would affect connectivity to other lines and Metrorail.

Metro said it had three criteria in planning the process for cutting bus routes: keeping service on routes with high ridership during the pandemic, eliminating redundancy by consolidating routes on the same corridor and ensuring equity for low-income riders.

“As today’s ridership skews to the low income who rely on Metro for essential travel to groceries, medical appointments and daily necessities, the routes also support access to jobs in health care at hospitals and in other sectors,” the agency said in its budget documents.

Public comment will also influence the final decision, Metro said.