Transit agency forks out $9m in last three years Metro has had to pay for as much as $11 million in free rides over the past six years because the contractor providing the trips to disabled riders has been late or failed to show up at all, according to an inspector general’s audit.

And $9 million of those costs have hit Metro in the past three years — including $2.75 million last year — after the transit agency agreed to give out two free-ride coupons for every late or missed MetroAccess trip to settle a class-action lawsuit stemming from the chronically late paratransit service.