Metro News Release
For immediate release: September 2, 2009
Metro reimbursed $3.4 million for Inauguration expenses
Local delegation helped secure reimbursement
Metro officials were notified by the U.S. Department of Justice this week that $3.4 million in federal funds would be returned to the transit authority to cover expenses associated with providing Metro service for the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. Metro had already received $475,000 in reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, so Metro’s total federal reimbursement was for $3.9 million.
“The work of the regional Congressional delegation – Senators Mikulski, Cardin, Webb, and Warner and Representatives Hoyer, Moran, Norton, Wolf, Van Hollen, Edwards, and Connolly -- to include funding for Inaugural expenses in the FY2009 appropriations bill made this grant award possible,” said Metro General Manager John Catoe. “The eyes of the world were upon us for the Inauguration, and when the historic Inauguration took place, it was one of this agency’s finest hours.”
On Inauguration Day, Metro provided about 1,120,000 rail trips, 423,000 bus trips and 1,721 MetroAccess trips for a total of 1,544,721 trips, the highest ridership day ever in the transit authority’s history.
With hundreds of thousands of people in town for the Inauguration of President Obama, Metrorail set a new record for the transit agency’s highest ridership on Tuesday, Jan. 20, when rail rides alone accounted for 1,120,000 trips surpassing the previous Metrorail high of 866,681 trips, which occurred the previous day, on Monday, Jan. 19.
On Metrobus, of the 423,000 trips taken, 228,000 were on special 23 “Presidential” bus corridors; 3,000 were on supplemental service to park and ride lots in Maryland and Virginia (outside the beltway); 177,000 were on regular route service; and 15,000 were on special shuttles put into place at locations to reduce crowding in the rail system.
Between Sunday, Jan. 18, and Tuesday, Jan. 20, Metro ran 60 hours of rail service out of 72 hours during those days, including 17 consecutive hours of rush hour service. Metro set three rail ridership records--a Sunday record and back-to-back weekday records. Between Sunday and Tuesday Metrorail carried an estimated 2.6 million trips.
More than 8,000 Metro employees worked on Inauguration day including 417 Transit Police officers; 266 volunteer police officers from other police agencies; and 340 people who volunteered to be Metro Ambassadors.
Media contact for this news release: Lisa Farbstein at 202-962-1051.
For all other inquiries, please call customer service at 202-637-7000.
News release issued at 2:32 pm, September 2, 2009.