Reduction in federal transit benefits could hurt ridership more Metro is expecting ridership on its rail system to drop as much as 5 percent in the next budget year, continuing a decline begun after the deadly 2009 Fort Totten crash.

The transit agency is projecting ridership on its trains to drop 3 percent in the budget year that starts July 1 from expected ridership in the current budget year, falling from 220.7 million trips to 215.2 million. That would be lower than the previous two years, falling to a level not seen since before the deadly Red Line crash that killed nine and injured dozens.