Metro News Release

For immediate release: October 23, 2003

Metro facing fiscal and service crisis, pleas for recommitment to local, state, federal funding partnership

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro), which has served the national capital region for three decades, is facing serious funding challenges caused by a combination of its aging infrastructure and growing ridership. If not addressed, the under-investment will result in an inability to meet the public’s expectations for service reliability and demand for increased capacity to move people on a daily basis.

Metro officials today called upon federal, state, and local partners to come together to fund Metro’s capital needs to sustain the system. "At a bare minimum, Metro requires $1.5 billion more than has already been committed over the next six years to protect and secure the $9.4 billion it took to build the Metrorail system," said Metro CEO Richard A. White.

"Metro stands at the precipice of a crisis, that, left unchecked, will lead to a dark future for this transit system and the region it serves," Mr. White said. "A re-commitment of the federal, state, and local partnership that created Metro in 1967 is urgently needed before it is too late. Approximately 1.15 million trips per day are made on Metro, and another 250,000 trips per day are made on the region’s local bus and commuter rail systems. Without a viable transit system, the quality of life in our region will deteriorate, economic development will suffer, traffic on roadways will increase, and air quality will worsen."

The existing Metro system is valued at approximately $24 billion at current replacement cost. The six-year program represents a spending level of $515 million per year for basic capital programs, or approximately 2 percent of Metro’s asset value. "This is a reasonable amount to protect such a significant public asset that plays such an indispensable role in our region’s attractiveness and quality of life," Mr. White said.

The crisis faced by Metro centers on its ability to sustain service levels and system reliability and to meet future demands for service. In order to accomplish this, "Metro urgently needs an adequate level of capital funding to modernize existing assets, provide additional bus and rail capacity and ensure an adequate level of system security," Mr. White said. "Worse yet, failure to address infrastructure needs will constrain capacity below its current limits because the system will not be able to maintain its current performance levels."

The General Accounting Office in a July 2001 report called Metro "a victim of its own success." The report pointed to the "growing pains" of increased ridership and "aging pains" of a system needing to modernize and replace key assets. Despite a successful 25 percent growth in ridership during a recent five-year period, Metro is concerned that capital funding deferrals will increase severe overcrowding and eventually cripple the system, driving commuters back into cars and onto the region’s already clogged, congested roadways. Further, air pollution will get even worse, potentially costing the region millions of federal dollars for transit and transportation improvements. "By anyone’s definition, these are unacceptable outcomes," said Metro Board Chairman Jim Graham.

The funds will go toward the following: protecting the Metro investment by replacing and rehabilitating assets such as trains, buses, elevators, escalators, power cables, and tracks; leveraging that investment by bringing additional capacity to customers by putting eight-car trains into service and more buses into the system; and securing that investment by enhancing security and ensuring Metro can continue to move people if there is a regional emergency.

Metro will "continue to do its part to sustain the world-class public transportation system and engineering marvel that is a trademark of the national capital region," Mr. Graham said. "Nevertheless, the fiscal crisis that has been looming is now here, and the region is running out of time."

"Failure to act on this crisis will result in a significant deterioration of our regional transit system, a severe degradation of service reliability and increased overcrowding," Mr. White explained.

In addition to Mr. Graham and Mr. White, Metro Board members Robert Smith, Gladys Mack, and Kate Hanley also spoke at today’s announcement, held at the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metrorail station.

News release issued on October 23, 2003.