Metro is prepared to pay out $96 million to about 8,000 of its employees after a federal judge backed a 3 percent raise to union workers over three years. The $96 million is a preliminary price tag after a lengthy legal fight between the transit agency and its largest union but doesn’t include the legal costs, which topped more than $1.8 million between both sides.

U.S. District Court in Maryland Judge Peter J. Messitte upheld an arbitration panel’s decision that the transit agency should pay Metro’s Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 workers 3 percent raises for three years.