A federal report warning that the nation’s biggest subway systems need major investment echoes what local transit officials have been saying for years: Metro is crumbling and needs billions of dollars.
Riders also know about those needs. They are reminded of the aging infrastructure every time a rail cracks, a train breaks down or a bus fails, delaying their trip.
The Federal Transit Administration’s report released last week said Metro and the six biggest subway systems nationwide need major investment to meet a $50 billion backlog that has left more than a third of the trains, rails and stations in “marginal or poor condition.”
It examined Metro, plus the rail transit systems in Chicago, Boston, New York City, New Jersey, San Francisco and Philadelphia that together serve more than 80 percent of the nation’s subway riders.
Unlike the other transit systems in the study, though, Metro has the federal government in its home court. Federal workers make up 40 percent of Metro’s daily rush hour ridership.
Today, Metro officials are closer to receiving a $1.5 billion federal infusion over 10 years. That’s on top of a nearly $490 million capital budget planned for the coming fiscal year, with an additional $202 million in unexpected stimulus funds to help with some immediate repairs.
Maryland’s U.S. Senate delegation, Democrats Benjamin Cardin and Barbara Mikulski, said they have submitted a request for Congress to appropriate $150 million that had been authorized in the fall as part of a $1.5 billion allocation over 10 years for the transit agency.
On Tuesday, Metro Chairman Jim Graham plans to introduce emergency legislation to the D.C. Council to change Metro’s compact, giving federal officials two votes on the agency’s board of directors as part of the agreement for that money. Maryland and Virginia already have passed similar measures.
All three jurisdictions would match the federal money, bringing in $3 billion over 10 years. Such money would not pay for operating the system but instead would go to capital needs such as the trains, buses and other equipment found lacking in the federal study.
The report said that the seven systems would need a $8.4 billion annual investment over the next 20 years to make up for the backlog and keep them from falling further behind.
