Metro's Options

By David Schultz

Metro's proposal, which you can see by clicking here, is broken up into several different scenarios. Below are summaries of each option.

Attachment A: This is a list of fare increases proposed by John Catoe, Metro's General Manager. These fare increases would raise more than $94 million in revenue for Metro. That's half of its current budget gap. The column at the right, called "Ridership," shows how many riders Metro predicts it would lose for each individual line item. Those numbers are in millions.

Attachment B: Catoe also gave the Metro Board a list of additional fare increases that would allow them to avoid any cuts in service. This scenario would raise $127 million - still not enough to cover the entire budget gap, but more than in Attachment A.

Attachment C: This is another list of proposed fare increases, with additional items that were requested by individual Board Members. For example, in the "Other" category, there is a proposal to allow Metro to charge up to five times more than the normal fare during special events such as a concert, a protest or a presidential inauguration.

Attachment D: This is a list of possible cuts to the MetroRail system. The first column, "Annual Cost Savings," is the gross cost of each of these items. The second column, "Annual Revenue Loss," is Metro's estimate of how much money it would lose if these items are eliminated, through the loss of fares and other sources of revenue. The third column, "Annual Subsidy Savings," is the net amount Metro would save if these items are eliminated. These cuts to MetroRail would save the system more than $24 million.

Attachment E: This is five page attachment is a listing of all the bus lines that would be affected by the proposed cuts to the MetroBus system. The first page is an overview of how much money Metro would save through these cuts. The following four pages are an itemization of which bus lines would be affected. These MetroBus cuts would save more than $28 million.

Attachment F: This attachment is a brief summary of the proposed cuts to MetroAccess, Metro's para-transit system for people with disabilities.

Attachment G: This is a list of additional fare increaes that were proposed by groups outside of Metro. Metro's Riders Advisory Council, it's labor union and the editors of the local transportation blog Greater Greater Washington were some of the groups to propose items here.