Right-sizing WMATA would help
As one who testified at WMATA’s fare increase hearings and cut my commute in half by switching to VRE, I can attest that some of us did try to warn WMATA about their underestimates of ridership losses from their second record fare increase in two years. While WMATA’s first fare increase last year was widely accepted because fares had stayed constant for so long, another series of increases this year, some of us warned, would be too much for recession-wracked riders. But instead of cutting back costly unsupportable services, the WMATA board must now confront their erroneous groupthink. While well-organized special interests (transit workers, environmentalists, “smart growth” associates, etc.) cheered for a fare increase, a third of those testifying encouraged WMATA to take a serious look at right-sizing their operation.
