Regional transportation leaders and the area’s congressional delegation issued a joint cry Thursday for an increase in federal funding for Metro but acknowledged that a key funding bill is unlikely to help the transit agency this year.
Metro, which is the only major transit system in the country without a dedicated source of funding, is scrounging for money to fix $489 million in urgent, unbudgeted capital needs for the aging rail system.
The agency also is scramblingto come up with money for its considerable capital needs, such as for old railcars and deteriorating station platforms — which are estimated to cost in the billions of dollars — after Metro’s current capital funding program expires in 2010.
A congressional bill sponsored by Rep. Thomas Davis III, R-Va., that would provide $1.5 billion in federal matching funds for Metro over the next 10 years has stalled in Congress and is unlikely to overcome political challenges this year.
“Even if we do get it passed this year, we’re not going to get [money] appropriated this year,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia pulled together money to match the federal dollars, but Virginia’s money fell through when the state’s Supreme Court ruled in February that its funding method was unconstitutional.
While Gov. Tim Kaine has scheduled a special legislative session later this month to address the issue, Davis was pessimistic. “I don’t think you’re going to be getting a transportation bill out of Virginia this year,” he said.
Metro General Manager John Catoe, who is co-chairman of the American Public Transportation Association’s legislative task force, said he wasn’t banking on the federal money this year.
“I always felt it would be very challenging this year, and I didn’t hear a great deal of optimism today,” he said.
Catoe said the association is focusing on pumping up transit dollars in the federal Surface Transportation Funding bill, which is up for renewal in 2009.
The group is advocating doubling transit funding in that bill to more than $120 billion over six years.
In the meantime, federal legislators are trying to shepherd a climate-change bill through the Senate this week that contains a provision authored by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., that would direct about $171 billion to states and localities for public transportation over the next 40 years.
That bill is scheduled to come to a vote today but is expected to be defeated.
