Breakfast links: Under Metro’s budget proposal, bus routes may be cut & restructured
Metro’s proposed budget cuts some popular bus routes
Among the many changes envisioned in Metro’s draft budget is the elimination or restructuring of a large number of bus routes. Also in the budget is a 15-cent increase in Metrorail rush-hour fares, later Metrorail operating hours, a surcharge for paying with cash on buses. (Max Smith / WTOP)
Business groups want to improve the region’s bus service
MetroNow, an alliance of business and nonprofit groups that successfully lobbied for last year’s historic Metro funding agreement, now wants to speed bus trips and increase bus reliability to 90% on-schedule by 2025, compared with 60% today. (Robert McCartney / Post)
Maryland’s transportation secretary resigns
Amidst ongoing planning to expand highway lanes around the Washington region, Maryland state transportation secretary Pete Rahn stepped down to return to New Mexico to be with his family. Governor Larry Hogan has already chosen Greg Slater, who headed the State Highway Administration, as Rahn’s successor. (Pamela Wood and Colin Campbell / Baltimore Sun. Tip: Dave Murphy)
Some neighbors want a WMATA bus barn relocated
A group of residents opposes WMATA plans to renovate the 110-year-old Northern Bus Garage at 14th Street and Iowa Avenue NW, which handles about 12% of WMATA’s bus fleet. The residents instead are pushing for the bus barn to move elsewhere. (Austin R. Ramsey / The Wash)
A nonprofit plans housing for formerly incarcerated people
A DC nonprofit, Jubilee Housing, closed on a church building in Adams Morgan and plans to use federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit funding and money from the District’s Housing Production Trust Fund to create temporary housing for up to 20 formerly incarcerated people. (Alex Koma / WBJ)
Could the College Park Airport boost economic development?
Located a quarter-mile from the College Park–University of Maryland Metro station, the College Park Airport—founded in 1909 by Wilbur Wright—has potential to promote economic development and become a transportation engine for Prince George’s County. (Bradley Heard / Prince George's Urbanist. Tip: Bradley Heard)
A high school in LeDroit Park will close
Students and staff at Washington Metropolitan High School, one of four “Opportunity Academies” intended to help students who struggle in traditional high schools, blame DCPS for neglect following a proposal to close the school at the end of the academic year. (Amanda Michelle Gomez / City Paper)
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