Metro needs between $125 million and $150 million immediately to fix or improve the tracks, power stations and platforms for its aging rail system, General Manager John Catoe said Wednesday.
The cash-strapped agency needs the money to fix eight sagging train platforms, as well as to replace melted track fasteners, which have been shown to cause rail fires, and to buy a special ultrasonic railcar that will detect rail problems early.
Catoe said Metro also would use the funds to retrofit its existing power generators and to keep three backup generators on hand.
The transit agency traced the source of a bizarre series of rail fires and power outages over two days in August to two old and failing power generators, which have since been replaced.
Catoe said he will present the Metro board of directors with funding options for the projects next month.
“We believe we have the capacity to borrow some of those dollars,” he said.
Metro staff also is putting together a review of how much money the agency will need to fund the capital needs of the transit system from 2010 to 2020 — a number Catoe said he expects will reach “$3 billion plus.”
In a round-table session with reporters to commemorate his one-year anniversary on the job, Catoe said his goals for the upcoming year include focusing heavily on creating new bus options.
“At some point, we have to look at the mixture of buses and railcars, and we need to examine new approaches ofbus rapid transit and express buses,” he said.
New Metro Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman also has been a proponent of rapid transit bus service, a system that dedicates a traffic lane exclusively for buses and that officials say could lure some rail users away from the crowded trains.
Catoe said the agency will work on creating express bus service along the 30s bus line while maintaining some full-stop service along the route.
He also said he sees opportunities for rapid transit bus routes from Virginia and Maryland to downtown Washington and along the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
