As a rule of thumb, you’re not supposed to spend what you don’t have—one need only look at our current financial crisis to see the disastrous results. Yet the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, facing a $176 million budget deficit and impending staff and service cuts, plans to embark upon two massive construction projects in the next five years which will cost a combined $6.4 billion. Rather than making drastic cuts to the existing transportation services on which hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians rely, WMATA should put all ambitious transportation projects on hold and look to cut costs and increase revenue in more sensible ways.
WMATA’s proposed purple line light rail, which would eventually encircle the District, is projected to cost $1.2 billion. Even more exorbitant is the proposed silver line connecting downtown D.C. to Dulles Airport, which is estimated to cost a cool $5.2 billion. Though well-intentioned and sorely needed, these projects should not come at the expense of the city’s responsibility to provide affordable, convenient public transportation for District residents.
The Joint Coordinating Committee led by staff from the WMATA member jurisdictions has developed a list of possible service cuts to help close WMATA’s budget gap. These cuts would include ending rail service as early as 10 p.m. on weeknights, opening stations later on weekdays, and suspending the yellow line on weekday nights and all weekend. The burden imposed by these cuts would fall disproportionately on the city’s low-income working class, who often must work jobs late at night and who would not be able to afford taxi rides after the Metro has closed.
Instead of drastically cutting down on essential services, WMATA should save money by increasing the efficiency of current transportation services. As the JCC proposed, WMATA should work to consolidate redundant bus routes and cut unproductive ones altogether. Furthermore, it should undertake more initiatives aimed at reducing administrative costs, such as the recent move to replace paper tickets and transfers with SmarTrip cards.
Despite the Board of Directors’ vehement opposition to fare hikes, WMATA should also consider increasing fares for most riders while expanding its reduced fare program to include the working poor in addition to seniors and disabled persons. This would help reduce the budget deficit without raising fares prohibitively high for those who can barely afford current rates. By increasing fare revenue, streamlining inefficient routes, and putting costly expansion projects on hold for the time being, WMATA can shrink its budget deficit without depriving the transit-riding populace of the services upon which they so desperately depend.
