All comments posted by users on the Greater Greater Washington post "WMATA: $11B or bust" http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1264/wmata-11b-or-bust/ en-us http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1264/wmata-11b-or-bust/#comment-24686 @BB Fixed. Knock yourself out. http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1264/wmata-11b-or-bust/#comment-24686 Sun, 03 May 2009 19:59:38 EDT http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1264/wmata-11b-or-bust/#comment-24683 This is pretty useful information, but in the first paragraph, where it says: "Last week, WMATA announced over $11B in capital improvement spending needs. Where would the money be spent? I found a staff report (PDF) before the Planning, Development and Real Estate Committee of the Board that laid out what WMATA is proposing for capital needs..." the link to the PDF is broken. Can anyone fix this? I would like to see the actual information from the WMATA itself. Thanks! :) http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1264/wmata-11b-or-bust/#comment-24683 Sun, 03 May 2009 13:24:03 EDT http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1264/wmata-11b-or-bust/#comment-13268 Michael: You only borrow money when you are sure you can repay it. Given the funding issues that WMATA has, this won't happen. The WMATA compact members are the ones that need to step up with support from the federal government. If there's no money for new rail cars, that can be dealt with. In London, where they have had this issue for decades national rail and Underground fares as a policy (although Underground fares have been moderated) rise at above the general rate of inflation to control ridership growth. This sends a very powerful message to policymakers that inaction has its cost. If you did not raise fares to supress demand the system would just get more and more crowed and eventually it would affect reliability. http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1264/wmata-11b-or-bust/#comment-13268 Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:28:42 EDT http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1264/wmata-11b-or-bust/#comment-12569 Sq: That would have been nice about 30 years ago, but it isn't the case now. Best option from the present is to borrow the money and spread it out over the next 30 years, and have money each year go to pay it back. http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1264/wmata-11b-or-bust/#comment-12569 Sat, 04 Oct 2008 22:26:54 EDT http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1264/wmata-11b-or-bust/#comment-12567 Semantic question about their budget policies: Shouldn't "capital costs" required to sustain a level of service("Performance focus") be factored into "operating costs"? http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1264/wmata-11b-or-bust/#comment-12567 Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:50:04 EDT http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1264/wmata-11b-or-bust/#comment-12402 Well, I had typed up something earlier but it got erased so I'll try again. WMATA's budget is divided up into Capital and Operating parts. The Capital part is about 40% of the total and is funded by the Federal government and local governments. The Operating Budget is 60% of the total and is funded by passenger revenue (fares, advertising parking fees) and local contributions ("jurisdictional subsidies"). There is an additional small portion called Reimbursable Projects, where WMATA operates a specific transit goal (like a special bus line) and the jurisdiction pays WMATA directly for operating costs. None of your fares, parking fees, etc., pay for purchasing your railcars, replacing track and structures, or building new service. For Operating costs, about 55% of WMATAs costs are paid for through passenger revenue. For Metrorail, this increases to 79%, and for Metrobus, it's about 30%. For Metroaccess (paratransit service for the disabled), it's about 5%. Everything that is not paid for through operating costs is divided up by a "jurisdictional funding formula" and paid for by the member jurisdictions. Hope this helps. http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1264/wmata-11b-or-bust/#comment-12402 Mon, 29 Sep 2008 20:15:41 EDT http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1264/wmata-11b-or-bust/#comment-12401 This is an interesting way to break down the costs, but I would love to see WMATA break it down by comparing the costs to road projects. Usually, the government pays for the infrastructure costs (the road, lights, construction workers) and the safety features (police), leaving the user to only pay for operations (gassing up the car or paying the taxi driver). So, how much of WMATA's costs are things that a driver would expect the government to pay for (rails, rolling stock, etc), and how much is stuff that ought to come out in fares? http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1264/wmata-11b-or-bust/#comment-12401 Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:33:35 EDT