Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON (WMAL) — The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority will need more than a billion dollars a year in additional funding to restore and maintain the Metrorail system. That was the message Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Board Chair Jack Evans hammered home at Wednesday’s transportation summit with regional leaders.
Evans said WMATA needs another billion dollars from the jurisdictions for the capital budget and $300 million from the Federal government for the operating budget. The Federal government doesn’t contribute any money to the operating budget now.
“That got remarkably little discussion. I mean I thought that sort of went over like a lead balloon,” Washington Post Senior Regional Correspondent Robert McCartney told WMAL’s Mornings on the Mall Thursday.
Instead the headline from Wednesday’s summit was about the possibility that entire rail lines would need to close down for anywhere from a month to six months so repairs could be made.
“It is something that is necessary if we are going to fix the system,” Evans said.
He didn’t know which lines are in the worst shape but said anecdotally there’s been a lot of work done on the Red Line . The Silver Line is new. The Blue, Orange and Yellow Lines, maybe even the Green Line, may need the most work.
He stressed that at this point no definite decisions have been made. The final call will be made by General Manager Paul Wiedefeld. He’s assessing all 117 miles of track in a report due out in the next few weeks. Closures could start as soon as that’s released.
While possible closures caught everyone’s attention, discussions about getting more money for WMATA dominated the summit.
Maryland Secretary of Transportation Pete Rahn said asking for money and getting it are two different things.
“I think it would be difficult to sell, even to the jurisdictions, significantly more dollars going toward WMATA until their house is in order,” said Rahn.
Others at the summit agreed and also added they need to show the jurisdictions and the Federal government what they are spending money on to prove it’s being spent responsibly.
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