Metro leaders are preparing a financial presentation to take to elected officials around the Washington region, a first step in trying to secure help to close a more than $700 million budget gap projected for next year, as well as similarly sized shortfalls in subsequent years.
For months, Metro officials have stressed the importance of finding a steady source of funding to cover the gap, which they said is expected to outpace revenue from ridership gains because of labor costs. But Metro board members have said little publicly about how they plan to bring in more money.
On Thursday, Metro General Manager Randy Clarke and Paul C. Smedberg, the Metro board chairman, revealed details for the first time of the message they are preparing, which lays out the state of Metro’s finances, the circumstances driving financial problems and Metro’s role in the region’s future. The presentation is expected to be a starting point for discussions that will narrow in the coming months to how much Metro is seeking and whether there will be one unified plan or three separate plans from D.C., Maryland and Northern Virginia cities and counties.
“Our job is to provide a framework of information that is honest [and] transparent,” Clarke said.
His comments came after a Metro board meeting in which Clarke announced pandemic-era records for ridership.
On June 1, Metrobus recorded 377,000 rides, while Metrorail ridership on Tuesday hit 433,000, Clarke said. The tally for Metrobus exceeds 2019 levels, according to transit agency figures.
Rail ridership has risen since early March, when it hovered slightly above 300,000, or about half of pre-pandemic levels.
The resurgence, Clarke said, underlines Metro’s importance even as half of Washington-area workers hold jobs that allow them to telework.
“There’s no scenario I see that people abandoned Metro,” Clarke said. “We’re [carrying the] better part of 800,000 people a day back on the system. And one day we’re going to be back to a million a day. I mean, it’s just fundamental to us as a region, whether it’s air quality on days like today or equity or congestion or economic development, you name it.”
Smedberg said he has not found it difficult to make Metro’s case to regional leaders.
“The conversations have actually gone pretty well, given everything,” Smedberg said. “They understand the urgency. Another thing that I think has been encouraging is the engagement with our federal delegation at the congressional and Senate level. So they get it. They understand it, and I think they’re going to be there to help support us.”
Members of Congress have not made pledges on behalf of the federal government after providing transit systems with three rounds of pandemic aid and more than $100 billion from the infrastructure law. But Smedberg said money isn’t the only way they can help.
“Their support, however it comes, will be helpful,” said Smedberg, who represents Virginia on the board. “It will be helpful with the governors. It will be helpful with the elected people in the General Assembly and state Senate, so their help comes in many different ways.”
Clarke said the transit agency will show that the issues aren’t isolated to Metro but are threatening systems across the country. In New York earlier this year, the state and city approved hundreds of millions of dollars in one-time and annual funding to help the Metropolitan Transportation Authority avoid funding shortages. “New York just solved theirs,” Clarke said.
Metro plans to ask regional leaders to help them secure a dedicated, annual stream of funding so transit officials don’t have to plead for help each year, Clarke said. He also wants the stream to include enough money to fund shortfalls that are projected to hit Metro’s separate capital budget this decade.
The capital budget includes money for construction, vehicle replacement, station renovations and other projects. Metro would be seeking more money on top of the $500 million a year Maryland, D.C. and Virginia leaders approved in dedicated funding in 2018 for Metro capital projects — an arduous political process that required coordination among jurisdictions. But transit officials have nearly exhausted that stream after using it to issue bonds to finance a bridge-and-tunnel reconstruction project and expensive track replacement, among other projects.
Smedberg said regional leaders have indicated they are willing to discuss finding a solution.
“Metro is key to this region. It just is,” he said. “But I think how we get there is going to obviously be a challenge.”
In other news Thursday, D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2) proposed legislation that would give Metro Transit Police more authority to fight fare evasion. The transit agency resumed enforcement in the District last fall in the wake of a rise in passengers not paying fares. Pinto proposed requiring offenders stopped for fare evasion to provide their name and address, or face detention and a fine of up to $100. In a letter that Metro sent to Pinto on Thursday, Clarke pledged support for the proposed change.
The D.C. Council decriminalized fare evasion in 2018, making it a civil offense subject only to fines, because city lawmakers said Black residents were being disproportionately targeted.
