Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON – People have talked about Metro plummeting into a death spiral for years, and some believe the 2018 budget will give the troubled transit agency the final push it needs to start its descent. The cycle starts when bad service leads to fewer riders and less revenue. Metro then raises fares to get the money it needs to operate, which drives away even more riders.
Thursday the finance committee approved a budget that increases bus and rail fares to close a budget gap of nearly $300 million. If the budget gets the final vote of approval from the full board in two weeks, fares will go up a dime for rail riders at rush hour, and a quarter during off-peak hours starting in July. Bus fares would increase by a quarter for anyone who doesn’t have a seven day pass. The fare hikes and service cuts would come at a time when ridership is down, which committee member Malcolm Augustine believes will lead more people to abandon Metro. There was a 12 percent drop in ridership over the last six months alone.
The Coalition for Smarter Growth’s Aimee Custis said looking at the numbers, it’s hard to conclude Metro isn’t headed down the death spiral.
“The thing that will eventually bring people back is frequent reliable service, and we are headed away from that,” Custis told reporters after the finance committee approved the budget Thursday.
Custis does believe Metro riders will come back in the long-term, but isn’t convinced Metro has done enough to get people back on trains and busses in the near future.
Metro’s General Manager Paul Wiedefeld told reporters the finance committee’s vote does not indicate the transit agency is headed down a death spiral. He is confident SafeTrack and provisions in the 2018 budget will improve reliability enough to get people out of cars and back on trains and busses.
Committee members said fare hikes have to be made because they are out of other ways to balance the budget. Custis said the jurisdictions should be pitching in the extra money, not riders.
Copyright 2017 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (photo: Heather Curtis)
