Maryland officials say they have agreed to pay some $28 million of the their share for Metro’s infrastructure projects this year — if the transit agency agrees to change how it charges the state and other jurisdictions for its long-term capital agreements.
State transportation officials had alerted Metro that they planned to defer $28.7 million due this year in capital payments until 2012 as its transportation trust fund was falling short. Transit advocates assailed the news, first reported in the Washington Examiner.
But Maryland Transportation Secretary Beverley Swaim-Staley told the Examiner on Thursday that the state has offered to pay the money before the end of June, as originally committed. The state will do so, though, only if the agency creates more accountability in its next multiyear capital funding agreement and charges the jurisdictions only for expenditures.
She said Metro had not been spending all of the money that jurisdictions contributed each year for long-term improvement projects. “The rider at Metro expects that certain capital improvements are being made, but we aren’t seeing the progress we expect,” she said.
She said Metro had not been spending all of the money that jurisdictions contributed each year for long-term improvement projects. “The rider at Metro expects that certain capital improvements are being made, but we aren’t seeing the progress we expect,” she said.
Sierra Club transit advocate Dennis Jaffe called the move ” a welcome step” as the money is needed to improve Metro’s reliability and safety. But he added, “Riders and the public are still looking to Maryland to join with the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia in preserving and increasing the value that Metro provides this region.”
The most recent capital spending plan calls for Metro spending $4.57 billion over six years — some $460 million less than planned earlier this year, even as the agency has projected more than $11 billion in needs over the next decade.
The proposal is still under negotiation, Swaim-Staley said, yet she said “we’re working to get back to the original $5 billion plan.” She said the operating budget — which currently calls for raising fares and cutting some service — also remains under discussion.
