Facing a $173 million budget gap, Metro’s general manager on Thursday proposed the largest fare increase in the agency’s history, The Washington Post reports.
“Metro is facing extreme economic pressures,” Metro general manager John Catoe told the board of directors. “A fare increase is not an option; it is a necessity.”
The increase could tack on 45 cents to subway fares, 25 cents to bus fares, and $1 to daily fees at Metro parking lots, The Post writes.
Expenses at the 31-year-old system have gone through the roof in recent years, The Post reports. Increased ridership has not offset growing expenses, like an 80-percent increase for health insurance, fuel costs that have spiked more than 300 percent since 1995, and maintenance costs.
The proposed increase would cover some of those costs, as well as improve service, writes The Post. It could mean more buses and longer trains to improve reliability and ease crowding.
However, board members representing the outer burbs said it would hurt their constituents the most, The Post reports.
For example, the round-trip, rush-hour cost to park and ride between Greenbelt and Metro Center could increase by $2.90 a day — about $64 a month, The Post estimates.
Less than 10 percent of train riders do the long haul and would pay the max, Catoe countered.
Catoe also proposed public hearings on the issue in November, so that the increase could take effect in January. But board members predicted a riot.
“The increases were so large that putting that out would create widespread agitation and outcry,” board member Jim Graham told The Post. “I mean, wow, what a wallop.”
A special session is scheduled for Sep 27, when Metro staffers will provide more details on the increase, The Post says.
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Didn’t Catoe say when he first came on board that he wouldn’t talk about a fare hike until internal savings were addressed? So why am I still standing on carpets that need to cleaned & replaces instead of hard floors that can be hosed down? And why am I riding short little escalators that could easily be stairs? And yes, that means us Silver Spring… there’s an elevator for the disabled, we certainly don’t need to pay to mainatain 3 sets of escalators. I realize that Metro is still new enough that it’s still paying off debt on the initial capital investment, and that’s PART of the discrepency with cities like NY. But the other part is our outrageous luxeries. They were necessary in the 70’s to lure suburbanites out of their cars. But now, the traffic on the beltway lures suburbanites out of their cars just fine – we no longer need to pay extra everyday for this nonsense. $2.. flat fare.. anywhere in 5 boroughs… and a monthly pass in the order of $70…. I realize that due to lower ridership & outstanding capital debt we can’t have it THAT good… but my goodness, we should be able to get closer than this! Particularly since the public subsidy here is 2x per ride what it is in NY!!
The problem I see is that if I have three or more people, it is cheaper (and faster) to just drive into DC and pay for parking. Why would I want to take the Metro
I’m a former New Yorker as well and didn’t even have a car till I moved down here…
[...] proposed fare increases are a little easier on the wallet than those proposed two weeks ago, when Metro’s general manager John Catoe hit the board of directors up for a 40-cent [...]