A Red Line train at Twinbrook Metro station by John Brighenti licensed under Creative Commons.

Metro is hoping to enter its 2024 fiscal year, which begins July 2023, with a bang. Agency officials, and their new General Manager, have some ideas to try to entice riders back with better service and “optimized” fares but are grappling with a budget deficit that looms over the agency’s future.

General Manager Randy Clarke is still relatively new to the agency but has hit the ground running. The self-proclaimed transit enthusiast and his staff released a draft budget proposal on Thursday, December 8, which includes some things that riders should appreciate, like more trains and buses, but which leaves a couple questions unanswered.

People using the Metro farecard machines under a prior fare schedule by Oran Viriyincy licensed under Creative Commons.

Tweaked fares

On the rail side of the house, Metro wants to simplify its fare structure. The table below shows what fares riders would pay under the proposed structure.

The agency is proposing to eliminate “peak” and “off-peak” fares, and merge them into one for all hours before 9:30 pm. Boarding a train anywhere from 5am to 9:30pm would cost between $2 and $6.50, depending on how far you’re going. The current maximum fare of $6 would be raised to $6.50, but the base fare for the entire day would be $2, rather than the $2 off-peak/$2.25 on-peak base the rail system currently operates with.

The higher max fare would hit riders that travel the system in the current off-peak hours – that is, between 9:30am-3pm and 7pm-9:30pm. Those off-peak fares, which are currently capped at $3.85, could reach $6.50 for long trips.

For those with lower incomes and who qualify for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Metro says it would administer a regional program that provides a 50 percent discount on trips. Bus trips would cost $1 instead of $2 and rail trips would cost between $1 and $3.25 for those enrolled in the program.

Metro officials believe the fare simplification would result not only in more fare revenue, but also more riders. Reducing low-income riders’ fares, but increasing the max fare and fares in the off-peak hours would bring in $7.1 million of the proposed $1.813 billion proposed budget, Metro thinks, as well as an additional 1.9 million trips during the next fiscal year.

The platform at Federal Triangle Metro station by Daniel Kelly used with permission.

More trains, especially on the weekends

As a way to entice riders and justify the combined peak/off-peak fare structure, Metro staff are proposing to continue restoring rail service back towards pre-Covid pandemic levels – and in some cases, back a little bit before that.

On the Red Line, train service wouldn’t be adjusted from its current levels, where they run every five minutes during peak hours, every six off-peak, and every 10 after 9:30pm and on weekends. Trains ran every four minutes during peak and every five off-peak in the 2019-2020 budget period before the Covid pandemic, but the agency seems satisfied leaving that where it is for now.

Green and Yellow line trains, meanwhile, would be restored back to levels that riders haven’t seen since 2016-2017. Metro proposes running both lines every 6 minutes from opening until 9:30pm at night, when they would drop to running every 10 minutes.

While both lines would run more frequently, the Yellow Line would run only between Huntington and Mt. Vernon Square. In the past, Metro has alternated between running the Yellow Line to Mt. Vernon, Fort Totten, and Greenbelt, but no more. Riders north of Mt. Vernon Square and south of L’Enfant would see trains every six minutes where the Green or Yellow lines run separately, and every three minutes in between those two stations in the core where the two lines run on the same tracks.

Compared to 2016-2017, this service pattern would mean five fewer trains per hour north of Mt. Vernon to Greenbelt in the off-peak hours. But the agency says it also represents a 34 percent increase in service compared to what they currently provide when comparing the current FY2023 and proposed FY2024 budgets.

Interestingly, the proposal says that Metro would make these all-day frequency changes not just Monday through Friday, but every day of the week. Red Line trains, which currently run every 10 minutes on Saturday/Sundays, would run every six during that same time period. Green and Yellow would both also run every six minutes all seven days of the week. The weekend flat $2 fare would remain in effect for those two days.

Restoring frequencies like this is an “opportunity to grow with enhanced service for fast growing parts of the region,” says Metro’s budget presentation.

Current and proposed Metrobus and Metrorail frequencies. Image from WMATA.

Riders on Metrorail’s Blue and Silver lines would continue to see trains coming every 10-12 minutes, but those on the Orange Line may see more trains. Metro’s budget plans for Orange Line trains to come every 7.5 minutes during rush hours, which is 33% more frequent than they currently run. Metro hasn’t run trains on the Orange Line this frequently since the 2017 budget year, when they ran every eight minutes.

An articulated Metrobus by BeyondDC licensed under Creative Commons.

Upgrades to three bus lines

Bus service on three routes would be increased, and all others left the same, according to the briefing.

B2: The B2 bus in DC, traveling between Anacostia and Mount Rainier, would be upgraded to run every 12 minutes all day. The route currently runs between every 10-16 minutes on weekdays and every 20 minutes on weekends, so most riders would see buses come more often.

A12: Metro is proposing to split the A12 into two different routes, both of which would run every 20 minutes all day. The line currently runs north from Addison Road to neighborhoods both east and west of Landover station. Instead, one replacement route would run north from Addison Road up to New Carrollton, and the other would run northwest from Downtown Largo to Capital Plaza Mall via the Landover Metrorail station, with a late-night extension to a different terminal location still under consideration.

16M: The 16G would be eliminated, and the 16M would be extended slightly from Pentagon City to Crystal City Metrorail station. The buses would continue down Hayes and turn on 18th to loop around at Crystal City, south of the current Metroway bus lane extension.

The money will run out. Where will it come from then?

The budget proposals noted in this post will cost an extra $24.3 million to run for FY2024, the agency says, and would be part of the agency’s overall $1.813 billion operating budget. The agency says overall ridership is still about 55 percent of pre-pandemic levels and they estimate that might raise to about 70 percent of pre-pandemic levels by the end of next year, but that still leaves a budget deficit to be reckoned with.

The hole in the proposed budget totals a whopping $184 million dollars, which need to come from somewhere if the agency is to run the buses and trains it wants in its budget. Staff say the agency still has federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) money that they can use, to the tune of $139.1 million.

The rest of the gap would come from the peak/off-peak fare restructure, improved ridership revenue, cutting unfilled jobs, and more. Metro’s Matt Letourneau, Board member from Loudoun, Virginia, suggested the agency launch into budget discussions for next-next year (FY2025) as soon as this budget process is done, so those conversations won’t be going anywhere for a little while.

Public input process

The Metro Board will formally authorize public hearings in January to get input on the proposed budget from individuals and organizations alike. The agency typically holds three public hearings (one for each state), which this year should occur during February. The budget would be formally adopted in April and begin in July 2023.

Editor’s note: GGWash board chair Tracy Hadden Loh is also on WMATA’s board. She has no editorial input per our editorial policy. Additionally, a previous version of this post stated that that one replacement bus route would run to Landover with the Capital Plaza Mall as a potential late-night terminal. The post has been updated.

Stephen Repetski is a Virginia native and has lived in the Fairfax area for over 20 years. He has a BS in Applied Networking and Systems Administration from Rochester Institute of Technology and works in Information Technology. Learning about, discussing, and analyzing transit (especially planes and trains) is a hobby he enjoys.