Cuts to Metro service being suggested by a regional advisory panel are so drastic that commuters “will be asking for a fare increase,” a Metro spokeswoman said.
Metro board members are slated to begin discussing the largest proposed service cuts in the agency’s history on Thursday as Metro grapples with rising costs amid an economic downturn.
Initial ideas from a regional advisory group include scrapping Metro’s 3 a.m. rail service on weekends and stopping its weekday trains at 10 p.m. Some rail station entrances could be closed and low-performing bus routes eliminated.
The full menu of possible service cuts had not been made public as of Friday. But Metro spokeswoman Candace Smith said preliminary drafts were “not good.”
“People will be asking for a fare increase,” she told The Examiner. “It’s really unfortunate that we’re in this position. It’s unfortunate for people who are trying to get to work.”
Local transit activists are already opposing initial proposals of how Metro might cut rail and bus service to bridge a projected $154 million gap in its $1.7 billion budget.
“We’re utterly opposed to any cuts,” said Ben Ross, president of the Action Committee for Transit in Montgomery County. He said his group already was planning ways to make its opposition heard.
The transit agency could avoid some service cuts by raising fares, asking local jurisdictions to increase the amount they subsidize the system or cutting more overhead.
The agency is in arbitration with the transit agency’s largest union, so the economic shortfall could be used as a bargaining chip to reduce some of the agency’s largest costs: personnel.
General Manager John Catoe has proposed a $1.38 billion budget that calls for keeping fares steady and local subsidy rates the same.
But he called for cutting 891 positions and $87 million in service cuts.
Catoe did not call for a fare increase or an increase to the local contributions from local jurisdictions that rely on the transit service.
Metro raised fares in January 2008, and board members at the time pledged not to raise them more than every other year.
Ross said Metro should ask for more subsidies before seeking a fare increase or service cuts. “People shouldn’t be trying to talk to the Metro board, they should be talking to local officials,” he said. “The better solution would be to take the money that is still being spent to build new roads and use it to preserve the current Metro system.”
Other advocates are skeptical about the cuts. “My overall sense is that when the dust settles, we’re not going to see the trains stop running at 10 p.m.,” said Ross Capon, president of the D.C.-based National Association of Railroad Passengers. “I just can’t visualize it.”
He likened it to what is known as the “Washington Monument game,” an oft-cited legend in which the Interior Department threatens to close the Washington Monument amid a budget crunch, provoking widespread outrage that ultimately saved the monument.
Metro board members deny they or Metro officials are crying wolf with the proposal to cut service.
“It should be taken seriously,” said board member Christopher Zimmerman of Arlington County. “There aren’t a lot of options available to the Metro board.”
What happens next?
Thursday: Metro board members are slated to hear an initial list of possible service cuts from a regional Metro advisory group. They say they will likely look at more cuts than are actually needed to give them a menu of cuts to consider.
March: Members of the public can weigh in on the proposed cuts in public hearings.
April: The board of directors will likely approve any service changes so Metro could implement them by July.
June: The board must approve the final budget by June 30.
July: Any approved service cuts would likely take effect.
