Passenger Transport - 11/04/2016

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Officials of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) recently proposed an austere operating budget that calls for downsizing the workforce by 1,000 positions, cutting some employee healthcare costs, outsourcing some functions, raising fares and scaling back service to align with current ridership in an attempt to control the agency’s major expenses while it continues its SafeTrack program to improve rail safety and reliability.

As Passenger Transport went to press, the Washington Post published an editorial calling for a federal takeover of the agency, which Board Chair Jack Evans subsequently echoed. APTA and Passenger Transport will monitor this development as it unfolds.

General Manager/CEO Paul Wiedefeld was scheduled to propose the $1.8 billion budget to the Board of Directors Finance Committee.

“Metro has to face reality when it comes to what the region says it can afford and direct those resources to best serve the riders we have today,” he said. “This plan has Metro doing everything in our power to get major expense categories under control while improving safety and making the trains run on time.”

The budget fully funds key safety improvements. Some details follow:

Metro proposes to save $50 million through management and labor actions, increase contributions from WMATA’s financial stakeholders (an additional $47 million from the District of Columbia, $44 million from Maryland and $39 million from Virginia) and raise fares to generate $21 million, among other strategies. While reducing its reliance on federal grant funds by $35 million, the operating budget assumes $60 million of grant funding for eligible maintenance expenses.

The agency forecasts a decline in ridership by more than 20 percent from 2009 levels and is proposing to reduce rail service frequency and eliminate about a dozen low-ridership bus routes.

“The most difficult part of this plan is the impact for Metro customers and employees,” Wiedefeld said. “Tough choices are required to balance the operating budget.”

Next, agency officials will ask the Board of Directors at its December meeting to approve a public hearing and other online and community outreach, which would begin in late January. The final budget requires full board approval by March to take effect July 1, 2017.

SafeTrack is an accelerated work plan to address safety and reliability recommendations for the Metrorail system with “safety surges” involving periodic shutdowns and service cutbacks. In October 2015, DOT Secretary Anthony Foxx directed FTA to assume temporary safety oversight of WMATA’s Metrorail system, the nation’s second busiest heavy rail system.

WMATA’s New P3-Funded Route
In other WMATA news, the agency launched a new bus service from Alexandria, VA, to National Harbor, MD, a retail and hotel center and a soon-to-open casino on the Potomac River.

The new route was funded through a public private partnership with Maryland DOT, the city of Alexandria, Fairfax County, VA, and the National Harbor developer, Peterson Companies.

The route across the rebuilt Woodrow Wilson Bridge will run as a nine-month pilot. Agency and jurisdiction officials project an annual ridership of 230,000.