Metro details plan to use $230M in stimulus for upgrades

Examiner File Photo (Examiner File)

Metro on Wednesday unveiled a plan to use $230 million of federal stimulus money to upgrade fare machines, install energy-efficient lighting at rail stations, add buses and replace a section of the Red Line.
The transit system was the first local agency to present a full plan for projects to be paid for with federal stimulus money to the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board.
But Metro and other local officials are also hoping to tap into a competitive grant that would give them $300 million more for another large-scale project. Among the projects discussed was creating a regional bus and road improvement plan that would expand bus service along 24 major routes.
“We’re looking at something that has to compete nationally,” said Ronald Kirby, transportation planning director for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
Metro is also considering applying for a federal grant for new railcars, said Metro Chief Administrative Officer Emeka Moneme.
And local officials are eyeing an unexpected $8 billion set aside by the President Barack Obama for high-speed rail projects. Although no such projects are currently in the works, local leaders plan to look for ways to tap into the program. “Nobody wants to let a drop of that money out of their pockets,” Moneme said.
Originally, Metro had come up with a list of projects costing about $530 million, then whittled that down to $325 million. The final reduction to $230 million Wednesday reflected the money made available under the stimulus plan.
The Metro projects would focus primarily on maintenance of the system’s aging infrastructure, including replacing a stretch of the system’s oldest tracks, along the Red Line from Judiciary Square to Rhode Island Avenue.
Although the stimulus package is intended to promote jobs, the money won’t help save hundreds of jobs that Metro has proposed to cut to bridge a $154 million budget shortfall in its proposed $1.38 billion budget.
Instead, the $230 million stimulus money would mainly help jobs in the manufacturing of buses and MetroAccess vehicles that aren’t actually built in the region. Some would also go to construction, although Metro cut its construction staff in recent years.