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Metro Chief Predicts Transit 'Death Spiral' Without Extra Funds
By Lyndsey Layton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 2, 2004; Page B01
Budget disputes in Maryland and Virginia and on Capitol Hill threaten to push the region's transit system into a "death spiral" littered with broken-down trains, overcrowded buses, frozen escalators and crumbling parking lots, Metro's top manager said yesterday.
"We're talking about a systemic service meltdown condition as early as three years from now," Metro Chief Executive Richard A. White told his board of directors. "It's reliability falling, ridership loss, road congestion increasing and air quality decreasing. It's a death spiral."
The 27-year-old transit system needs $1.5 billion over the next six years for maintenance, the purchase of enough rail cars to run eight-car trains and prevent jampacked conditions, and to buy 185 additional buses to alleviate crowding on popular routes. The first down payment of $34 million is due in October, when Metro must order 50 of 120 new rail cars.
Without the money, the rail system will grind to a halt, said White, who conjured up memories of the 1999 Cherry Blossom mutiny, when passengers fed up with a rash of breakdowns refused to get off a broken-down train, and the Red Line shutdown two weeks ago that dumped thousands of riders onto city streets. "These are examples of the kinds of things people can expect to see on a more regular basis," he said.
Metro has been struggling to pay its operating costs and is planning to raise fares for the second consecutive year. The $1.5 billion sought by Metro has nothing to do with the regular operating budget -- it is needed for new equipment, White said.
But the federal, state and local governments that fund Metro are paralyzed by their own budget fights, leaving transit officials panicked about how they will afford the trains, buses and maintenance equipment to keep the system running.
