If Metro cannot obtain additional funding from local jurisdictions, it will cut and even eliminate service, lay off workers and greatly curb maintenance.
During Thursday’s meeting, metro officials outlined a tentative budget for Fiscal Year 2025 that eliminates 67 bus lines, reduces another 41 lines, ends all rail service by 10 p.m., hikes fares for rides and parking by 20% and brings back Red Line turnarounds in which every other train would stop at Silver Spring and Grosvenor.
Ten train stations will be shuttered. While those stations weren’t named during the Thursday meeting, Metro staff said it would be the 10 stations with the fewest riders and would not involve two stations in a row.
Times between trains would increase, generally to 15 minutes on weekdays and 20 minutes on weekends. Peak periods in which additional trains are utilized would end.
“This is definitely not the budget I wish I was proposing,” said General Manager Randy Clarke. “We don’t make this proposal lightly.”
Metro is mandated to have a balanced budget. This proposed Fiscal Year 2025 budget includes drastic cuts to make up for a structural funding shortfall of $750 million, according to a staff report.
Now that Clarke has presented his budget, the transit’s board will review it for about a month. In February, there will be public hearings on the proposed cuts.
These cuts will lead to overcrowding on transit and platforms, longer response time by police, more frequent elevator and escalator outages and cause “a death spiral” for Metro, according to a staff document.
Today our General Manager @wmataGM released a proposed FY2025 budget based on closing an unprecedented $750 million deficit. Severe service cuts would make Metro unrecognizable. Learn more: https://t.co/0Srp4OmfaY #wmata pic.twitter.com/sDmkOwTrzC
— Metro Forward (@wmata) December 14, 2023
More than 2,200 jobs would be eliminated, and most salaries would be frozen, according to the proposed $4.5 billion FY 2025 budget.
These drastic measures come following a steady increase in ridership since February, completion of numerous capital projects and a decrease in crime, Clarke said.
Clarke stressed that he hoped all the proposed cuts would not be needed. “We need a healthy Metro system if we are going to have a great DMV.”
