”
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’

Metro’s in a bad way. They’re facing a $189M budget deficit for the fiscal year starting in June, and proposed service cuts are pretty draconian. There will be a series of six hearings related to the deficit, and Metro will seek public opinion for how to address the major gap in funding and the service level of the transit system at large.

Some of the options for the service reductions are pretty draconian, and include the removal of 8-car trains from service, and closing three stations on the weekends, as well as reducing the frequency of approximately 40 bus lines. The options right now would make an already crowded-to-capacity system practically unusable. If these aren’t the sort of thing that you’re comfortable with, maybe a fare hike is more what you’re looking for. Options there include increasing the peak charge from $1.65 to $2 each way, and the maximum to $5.45, and peak-of-the-peak charges of $.50, as well as $.35 hikes in bus fare, and peak-of-the-peak charging for Metrobus, as well.

No matter what you do, you should check out Fair Share for Metro and use their tools to contact your representative to let them know how important Transit issues are to you. Click through for the locations of each hearing, they all begin at 7pm.

Monday, March 22
Hearing No. 548
Oakton High School Lecture Hall
2900 Sutton Road
Vienna, VA

Wednesday, March 24
Hearing No. 549
St. Francis Xavier Church, Bailey Room
2800 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE
Washington, DC

Monday, March 29
Hearing No. 550
Mt. Calvary Baptist Church
5120 Whitfield Chapel Road
Lanham, MD

Wednesday, March 31
Hearing No. 551
Arlington County Board Room, 3rd Floor
2100 Clarendon Boulevard
Arlington, VA

Thursday, April 1
Hearing No. 552
All Souls Unitarian Church, Pierce Hall
1500 Harvard Street, NW
Washington, DC

Thursday, April 1 
Hearing No. 553
Montgomery County Executive Office Building, Cafeteria
101 Monroe Street (entrance on Jefferson Street)
Rockville, MD

Tom Bridge

I live and work in the District of Columbia. I write at We Love DC, a blog I helped start, I work at Technolutionary, a company I helped start, and I’m happy doing both. I enjoy watching baseball, cooking, and gardening. I grow a mean pepper, keep a clean scorebook, and wash the dishes when I’m done. Read Why I Love DC.