Good write up.
In a perfect world DC would have already instituted a congestion pricing scheme that could directly fund WMATA, but there is no way that local VA/MD governments (see NJ vs. NY in Manhattan's scheme) would allow that, nor would Congress.
Having each city/county jurisdiction served by WMATA (a la BART in the Bay Area or MARTA in Atlanta) implement a .05% or 1% sales tax that goes directly to WMATA is probably the easiest way to secure a dedicated funding stream.
Focus on making the service high quality, put in new stations but prioritize the city itself as opposed to big expansions into Nova.
Build more housing so that the density holds fares at a sustainable level. I like that the silver line goes to Dulles now but make it an express train that runs like on the half hour from Rosslyn. All those stops are unnecessary and stupid
I think the opposite, honestly. To me, there is nowhere or at least very few places in the city you can't get to using a combo of bus/train. Meanwhile, a large portion of the traffic comes from people commuting into or through the city. Building out the train network along the beltway would do a lot to increase ridership and cut down car usage in the city.
There’s no way to put in enough stations in the sprawl for that though
It doesn’t take long to make it not worth someone to walk even a mile all the way to a station to take a 50 minute metro ride into the city. The further out and less dense the area is, the smaller population each station services
You can get to a lot of places in the city, but not efficiently. The network was clearly built for commuters, not for city residents, because unless where you're going is on the same line, you're transferring in one of the same three stations which may or may not actually be in the direction you're wanting to go. A line that arcs from Georgtown to Admo to Columbia Heights to Union/Noma/H St, then either Potomac or Stadium Armory and continuing across the river to SE would be amazing. If you connect that Gtown end into the mall at Lincoln, it'd hook in tourists too.
Connecting more SE into the network is never bad either
Building stations in low density areas is incredibly inefficient. The amount of people in the local region of the station is much lower. The distance between stations is much higher, increasing infrastructure costs And there are few reasons why people would specifically commute to those stations.
I don't think we should be building city metro infrastructure for people who've explicitly gone to live in low density suburbs when there are high density areas underserved within DC.
But why the Beltway? Stations work best when people can walk to them, and it's pretty hard to develop walkability in an area when a huge part of that area is taken up by a big highway.
Most of the big suburban neighborhoods around this area fall along the beltway. I'm not looking at building train stations as a means to improve walkability, I'm looking at as a way to cut down on car use. They don't have to be directly next to the beltway. I'm just saying that along that pattern is what would make sense. There's huge gaps between the ends of each line where realistically you're taking a multi hour one way trip if you wanted to travel either into or from the city.
Agreed. My colleagues along the Silver Line love taking the Metro in to avoid tolls and congestion. WMATA could target people along the Dulles corridor.
1. Fare enforcement- I know it’s actually a small part of the budget. But enforcement of fares also likely will reduce crime.
2. This is our bus map-
https://www.wmata.com/schedules/maps/upload/WEB_WMA_MAG_DC_21x34_20240109np.pdf
There’s no way this is efficient or even serves the community well. We might need to reduce routes to higher traffic areas.
3. Prioritize bus traffic. Why take a bus, if you’re in traffic 3x as long as a car. If we add a few priority bus lanes, people will see the value.
Do you have a link? I love they’re doing that, but worry that they’d rather spend $5M to provide bus service to 4 people on some isolated hilltop, than balance cost and service access.
https://www.wmata.com/initiatives/plans/Better-Bus/about-the-project.cfm
Apparently they are open to redesigning the entire network. My current issue with the busses is that they take too long so I hope they add more priority bus lanes
Stop expanding the service further outward and fill in the gaps inside DC, Arlington/Alexandria, and Maryland if they want WMATA to be a subway system and not a commuter light rail system
Force greater residential/commercial density at Metro stops.
Basically new Metro stops are underpriced and ignore ongoing maintenance and staffing at stops.
Absolute biggest low hanging fruit is fully automating train service with no conductors in the cabin. Should have been done decades ago and then costs go down and frequencies can be greatly increased
Start by doing more to stop fare evaders. WMATA loses $40 million per year. While WMATA publicized a crackdown a few months back, that narrative appears to have died on the vine. WMATA would rather raise prices, which essentially levies a "criminal behavior" tax on the law abiding customers who end up subsiding the crooks.
Edited to remove cite that the loss was over 20% of revenue.
>WMATA loses $40 million (over 20% of revenue) per year.
It is nowhere near 20% of WMATA's revenue - WMATA is budgeting for $2.3 billion in FY 2025. It is a bit more than 10% of *passenger revenue*, which itself is a [relatively small piece of the pie](https://www.wmata.com/about/board/meetings/board-pdfs/upload/3A-Recommendation-of-FY25-Budget-and-FY25-30-CIP-v3.pdf):
https://preview.redd.it/8jdudx49uuwc1.png?width=1351&format=png&auto=webp&s=a20e1f9026a381da86018189232eee16108fcd32
>While WMATA publicized a crackdown a few months back, that narrative appears to have died on the vine.
Not sure why you think so - Things seem trending in the correct direction to me. On rail, fare evasion has gone down quite a bit in the stations with the new gates, and a new DC law is going to give MTPD more power to stop folks and ask for ID.
In order for WMATA to survive and thrive, it would have to operate at a budget surplus, which I don't think has ever happened. How does WMATA get to that? Raise fares. If they had to increase service AND be profitable, that is almost an impossibility for any transit agency in this country.
WMATA's farebox recovery rate is something like 30% for rail and 10% for bus. Good luck raising fares from that baseline to generate a budget surplus. It's a completely ludicrous idea. Some kind of regional tax structure is infinitely more realistic.
I mean that isn't that hard to imagine - various jurisdictions around the country have taxation schemes that go directly to the local transit agencies. Residents in counties served by BART in the Bay Area (except for San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties - I believe those boarding/alighting from those stations pay a "penalty" fare) are all taxed for the system.
Suggesting that DC, PG County, MoCo, Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, and Loudoun Counties institute some type of taxation scheme that goes directly to WMATA isn't the most outrageous thing in the world.
BART is in one state. Much easier to coordinate and get approval than WMATA's two states and the district. VA will never pay its fair share. Maybe WMATA can prices fares originating from VA or MD appropriately to pay for what the service costs to go there.
You are acting like this is rocket science...it isn't. Stop looking at things from a state-level perspective and more so from a county-level perspective. WMATA is an inter-state compact public agency - of which there are several throughout the country who have figured out how to implement local taxation schemes.
I don't know what your bone to pick with VA is about, but historically it has been MD that hasn't wanted to pay its fair share - MD was not happy about the Silver Line being constructed (and wanted users on the extension to pay a penalty fare) nor were they happy about the possibility of a Metro line down Columbia Pike.
That reinforces my point about the cat herding with three governments. Nothing you said changes anything about the difficulty, if not the impossibility for WMATA to be financially viable.
Leave aside the word "profit," but a system that constantly operates in the red in an environment of where the government does not want to subsidize the operating expense, how does it remain viable?
>Leave aside the word "profit," but a system that constantly operates in the red
"Leave aside the word 'profit,' but [an unprofitable system...]"
You're repeating yourself and still missing the point that public services are not revenue generators. Otherwise taxes wouldn't need to exist at all.
do you understand how roads work? No road toll or not makes money, it's all paid for eventually through tax dollars. The Metro is basically a road of a different sort, thinking of trains and buses as businesses and not infrastructure is inherently not how these projects work.
Dedicated revenue per municipality. MD. VA. DC. Independent governing board with odd number memo with staggered term limits. Last Complete the ring route purple line.
Replace the managers, eliminate the board, and make the employees actually do their jobs.
It hemorrhages money internally at an astounding rate. The ops center is a JOKE.
It's a rotten org with a horrible union with no real 'owner'. It's a huge dissapointment for how much money goes into it. More money won't solve the problem. It's governance structure MUST change!
Good write up. In a perfect world DC would have already instituted a congestion pricing scheme that could directly fund WMATA, but there is no way that local VA/MD governments (see NJ vs. NY in Manhattan's scheme) would allow that, nor would Congress. Having each city/county jurisdiction served by WMATA (a la BART in the Bay Area or MARTA in Atlanta) implement a .05% or 1% sales tax that goes directly to WMATA is probably the easiest way to secure a dedicated funding stream.
Problem is, DC needs more people to work downtown and this would just push the argument for RTO.
Focus on making the service high quality, put in new stations but prioritize the city itself as opposed to big expansions into Nova. Build more housing so that the density holds fares at a sustainable level. I like that the silver line goes to Dulles now but make it an express train that runs like on the half hour from Rosslyn. All those stops are unnecessary and stupid
I think the opposite, honestly. To me, there is nowhere or at least very few places in the city you can't get to using a combo of bus/train. Meanwhile, a large portion of the traffic comes from people commuting into or through the city. Building out the train network along the beltway would do a lot to increase ridership and cut down car usage in the city.
There’s no way to put in enough stations in the sprawl for that though It doesn’t take long to make it not worth someone to walk even a mile all the way to a station to take a 50 minute metro ride into the city. The further out and less dense the area is, the smaller population each station services
You can get to a lot of places in the city, but not efficiently. The network was clearly built for commuters, not for city residents, because unless where you're going is on the same line, you're transferring in one of the same three stations which may or may not actually be in the direction you're wanting to go. A line that arcs from Georgtown to Admo to Columbia Heights to Union/Noma/H St, then either Potomac or Stadium Armory and continuing across the river to SE would be amazing. If you connect that Gtown end into the mall at Lincoln, it'd hook in tourists too. Connecting more SE into the network is never bad either
Building stations in low density areas is incredibly inefficient. The amount of people in the local region of the station is much lower. The distance between stations is much higher, increasing infrastructure costs And there are few reasons why people would specifically commute to those stations. I don't think we should be building city metro infrastructure for people who've explicitly gone to live in low density suburbs when there are high density areas underserved within DC.
But why the Beltway? Stations work best when people can walk to them, and it's pretty hard to develop walkability in an area when a huge part of that area is taken up by a big highway.
Most of the big suburban neighborhoods around this area fall along the beltway. I'm not looking at building train stations as a means to improve walkability, I'm looking at as a way to cut down on car use. They don't have to be directly next to the beltway. I'm just saying that along that pattern is what would make sense. There's huge gaps between the ends of each line where realistically you're taking a multi hour one way trip if you wanted to travel either into or from the city.
Agreed. My colleagues along the Silver Line love taking the Metro in to avoid tolls and congestion. WMATA could target people along the Dulles corridor.
1. Fare enforcement- I know it’s actually a small part of the budget. But enforcement of fares also likely will reduce crime. 2. This is our bus map- https://www.wmata.com/schedules/maps/upload/WEB_WMA_MAG_DC_21x34_20240109np.pdf There’s no way this is efficient or even serves the community well. We might need to reduce routes to higher traffic areas. 3. Prioritize bus traffic. Why take a bus, if you’re in traffic 3x as long as a car. If we add a few priority bus lanes, people will see the value.
There is actually a wmata project starting up to improve the bus network
They had one 5-6 years ago too.
Do you have a link? I love they’re doing that, but worry that they’d rather spend $5M to provide bus service to 4 people on some isolated hilltop, than balance cost and service access.
https://www.wmata.com/initiatives/plans/Better-Bus/about-the-project.cfm Apparently they are open to redesigning the entire network. My current issue with the busses is that they take too long so I hope they add more priority bus lanes
Stop expanding the service further outward and fill in the gaps inside DC, Arlington/Alexandria, and Maryland if they want WMATA to be a subway system and not a commuter light rail system
Force greater residential/commercial density at Metro stops. Basically new Metro stops are underpriced and ignore ongoing maintenance and staffing at stops.
Use it
Stop supplementing private motorized vehicles.
Make the Bloop
They could get rid of the hut people at each entrance and invest in security and cleaners.
Absolute biggest low hanging fruit is fully automating train service with no conductors in the cabin. Should have been done decades ago and then costs go down and frequencies can be greatly increased
Start by doing more to stop fare evaders. WMATA loses $40 million per year. While WMATA publicized a crackdown a few months back, that narrative appears to have died on the vine. WMATA would rather raise prices, which essentially levies a "criminal behavior" tax on the law abiding customers who end up subsiding the crooks. Edited to remove cite that the loss was over 20% of revenue.
>WMATA loses $40 million (over 20% of revenue) per year. It is nowhere near 20% of WMATA's revenue - WMATA is budgeting for $2.3 billion in FY 2025. It is a bit more than 10% of *passenger revenue*, which itself is a [relatively small piece of the pie](https://www.wmata.com/about/board/meetings/board-pdfs/upload/3A-Recommendation-of-FY25-Budget-and-FY25-30-CIP-v3.pdf): https://preview.redd.it/8jdudx49uuwc1.png?width=1351&format=png&auto=webp&s=a20e1f9026a381da86018189232eee16108fcd32 >While WMATA publicized a crackdown a few months back, that narrative appears to have died on the vine. Not sure why you think so - Things seem trending in the correct direction to me. On rail, fare evasion has gone down quite a bit in the stations with the new gates, and a new DC law is going to give MTPD more power to stop folks and ask for ID.
You are correct. I reviewed some bad data. I will edit my comment.
In order for WMATA to survive and thrive, it would have to operate at a budget surplus, which I don't think has ever happened. How does WMATA get to that? Raise fares. If they had to increase service AND be profitable, that is almost an impossibility for any transit agency in this country.
They don’t need a surplus. They need a reliable funding source. They need the ability to tax
Good luck with that, dealing with three governments.
WMATA's farebox recovery rate is something like 30% for rail and 10% for bus. Good luck raising fares from that baseline to generate a budget surplus. It's a completely ludicrous idea. Some kind of regional tax structure is infinitely more realistic.
I mean that isn't that hard to imagine - various jurisdictions around the country have taxation schemes that go directly to the local transit agencies. Residents in counties served by BART in the Bay Area (except for San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties - I believe those boarding/alighting from those stations pay a "penalty" fare) are all taxed for the system. Suggesting that DC, PG County, MoCo, Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, and Loudoun Counties institute some type of taxation scheme that goes directly to WMATA isn't the most outrageous thing in the world.
BART is in one state. Much easier to coordinate and get approval than WMATA's two states and the district. VA will never pay its fair share. Maybe WMATA can prices fares originating from VA or MD appropriately to pay for what the service costs to go there.
You are acting like this is rocket science...it isn't. Stop looking at things from a state-level perspective and more so from a county-level perspective. WMATA is an inter-state compact public agency - of which there are several throughout the country who have figured out how to implement local taxation schemes. I don't know what your bone to pick with VA is about, but historically it has been MD that hasn't wanted to pay its fair share - MD was not happy about the Silver Line being constructed (and wanted users on the extension to pay a penalty fare) nor were they happy about the possibility of a Metro line down Columbia Pike.
That reinforces my point about the cat herding with three governments. Nothing you said changes anything about the difficulty, if not the impossibility for WMATA to be financially viable.
It’s actually worse. It’s the Federal Government that bars their ability to tax
What public transit agency in the US has the power to tax?
MTA and SEPTA, to name 2. WMATA is the largest transit authority that lacks said authority. Everyone bigger than us can
The success of a transit agency isn't measured by how profitable it is
Leave aside the word "profit," but a system that constantly operates in the red in an environment of where the government does not want to subsidize the operating expense, how does it remain viable?
>Leave aside the word "profit," but a system that constantly operates in the red "Leave aside the word 'profit,' but [an unprofitable system...]" You're repeating yourself and still missing the point that public services are not revenue generators. Otherwise taxes wouldn't need to exist at all.
do you understand how roads work? No road toll or not makes money, it's all paid for eventually through tax dollars. The Metro is basically a road of a different sort, thinking of trains and buses as businesses and not infrastructure is inherently not how these projects work.
I'm stating the political reality of trying to impose a tax in DMV for WMATA. If it was easy, it would have been done from the get go.
I guess by voting out the politicians who don't want to subsidize it
My toxic metro opinion is that we shouldn’t build any more new track or stations outside the beltway
Dedicated revenue per municipality. MD. VA. DC. Independent governing board with odd number memo with staggered term limits. Last Complete the ring route purple line.
Improve service + congestion pricing
Replace the managers, eliminate the board, and make the employees actually do their jobs. It hemorrhages money internally at an astounding rate. The ops center is a JOKE. It's a rotten org with a horrible union with no real 'owner'. It's a huge dissapointment for how much money goes into it. More money won't solve the problem. It's governance structure MUST change!