Metrobus riders in one of the poorest parts of the District could lose a special 50-cent discount enjoyed for nearly 20 years as the city looks to close its share of Metro’s budget gap. The District also is mulling cuts to four bus routes, new options added Thursday as the transit agency tries to fill a $72 million hole in the proposed $1.46 billion operating budget that starts in July.
| What’s still on the table for Metro cuts |
| Metrorail |
| • Increasing the wait times for weekend trains up to 20 minutes during the day and 25 minutes after 9:30 p.m. |
| D.C. bus service |
| • K1: Eliminate the line from Takoma Metro station into Walter Reed Army Medical Center. |
| • N8: Eliminate the line from Tenleytown to Glover Park. |
| • E6 and M4: Consolidate the two lines that serve the D.C. portion of Chevy Chase near the Friendship Heights Metro and Nebraska Avenue to Tenleytown and into Palisades. |
| • Modify the “Anacostia Buyback” program: Only bus riders who transfer at the Anacostia Metro station would receive the discount, under the D.C. proposal, instead of all Anacostia bus riders. |
| What’s no longer on the table |
| • Board members removed the option of selling the naming rights to stations. |
| • Cutting late-night weekend service from midnight to 3 a.m. also appears to be off the table – for now. Instead, Metro officials have said that may be revisited over the summer as a way to make more time for maintenance work. |
Metro General Manager Richard Sarles had proposed the budget without any service cuts, instead asking the jurisdictions served by the transit agency to pony up $72 million more in subsidies. But board members balked at paying a total of $693 million as their own communities suffer under budget cutbacks.
Metro’s board of directors narrowed their alternatives Thursday, walking away from any bus cuts in Maryland and Virginia and avoiding most cuts to rail service. Arlington County representative Mary Hynes said her county was even prepared to pay its entire share of the extra subsidy.
But D.C., which is eyeing its own $322 million budget gap, asked to add to its list of cutbacks.
Now the only possible cuts include lengthening the wait time for trains on weekends to as much as 20 minutes to save an estimated $6.1 million, plus cutting some D.C. bus service and the discount program for Anacostia bus riders to save an additional $2.16 million.
Since 1991, the District has been subsidizing bus riders in Anacostia by 50 cents per bus ride, according to Metro.
The discount was created when the Anacostia Metro station opened because bus routes started to turn back at the Metrorail station, rather than continuing into downtown, said District Department of Transportation Associate Director Scott Kubly. That meant riders used to paying a single bus fare had to pay a rail fare, too. But the discount went to all Anacostia bus riders whether or not they transferred at the rail station.
Kubly said the city hopes to change the program so the discount goes to only those riders who actually transfer to and from the rail system, a modification he said would better reflect the policy put in place 20 years ago. SmarTrip cards now make the change possible, he said.
Limiting the discount would save the city an estimated $900,000, he said. It was not clear how many riders would lose out, though. That portion of the city, Ward 8, has one of D.C.’s highest unemployment rates at 25.2 percent, according to the city’s Employment Services Department latest data.
The city also is considering cutting two bus routes and consolidating two others in Northwest, saving an additional $1.2 million.
The board plans to solicit rider feedback on the cuts at a public hearing this spring. It still may consider negotiating lump-sum leases on Metro property as a one-time solution or borrowing money from the capital budget before making final decisions on the budget by late June.
