As officials were pleading lack of funds to replace aging rail cars in the wake of the transit system’s deadliest crash ever last week, Metro’s board of directors approved a $2.14 billion budget.
The transit system is also receiving about $202 million in federal stimulus money. And a new railway expansion to Washington Dulles International Airport and beyond is slated to cost more than $5 billion.
That has left some people wondering how an agency that spends so much money hasn’t had enough cash to replace the 1000 Series rail cars involved in Monday’s crash — a model that has been under fire from the National Transportation Safety Board since 2006 when the board told the agency to replace or retrofit the rail cars that made up about a quarter of the fleet because they weren’t “crash worthy.”
Metro officials say the transit system needs the money in its budget for a wide variety of purposes other than replacing the rail cars.
“If we don’t spend it, then nothing is running,” said Peter Benjamin, who represents Maryland on Metro’s board. “The platforms would be falling apart, your communications systems wouldn’t work. … There’s a whole bunch of basic replacement and rehabilitation you have to do.”
About $1.4 billion of the budget that takes effect July 1 is intended for operating the system’s trains, buses and stations each day, while the rest is for what’s called capital costs for equipment, hardware and facilities. About $500 million of those capital costs were committed six years ago for various equipment and facilities that needed repairs or replacements.
In addition to fixing up the 33-year-old rail system as well as bus garages up to 100 years old, Metro has been trying to expand its capacity to meet growing ridership. This involves increasing the power system so it can handle longer eight-car trains.
Meanwhile, nearly all of the money for the Dulles Rail project will come from tolls, Virginia taxes and federal funds, not Metro’s budget. And the agency is limited in how it can spend its share of federal stimulus money. The intent of President Barack Obama’s package was to create jobs in the United States, but most major rail car manufacturers are not in this country, according to Benjamin.
“If you’re trying to do what the stimulus calls for, you don’t spend it on rail cars,” he said.
Metro officials and the local congressional delegation are pushing Congress to appropriate $150 million each year as part of a 10-year commitment authorized last year. With Maryland, Virginia and the District matching that amount with $50 million each, the transit system would have $300 million more a year to devote to fixing escalators and buying replacement rail cars.
