‘waiting’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Chock full of WMATA today.

First up, it looks like the Circulator will be taking over one or two Metrobus routes this spring. This would increase the local service to five looping routes from the current three. Which routes aren’t yet determined, but Circulator officials have stated they can offer the same service as Metro for less money. Whether Metro agrees or not remains to be seen.

Additionally, the Fairfax Connector is proposing to operate three Metro lines beginning this summer.

Metro’s desperate to plug a $154M hole in their budget, so it would be in their best interest to look at letting local services handle it. But Metro would lose the line’s fare revenue and subsidies from the jurisdiction that is paying Metro for the service. While the operating costs would go away, they may be reluctant – or stubborn – to let that money go.

The Examiner‘s Kytja Weir does a great job looking deeper into the issue. Continue reading →