Groups call for hearings, bus priorities, earlier fare increase
Photo by BuhSnarf.
Transit advocacy groups have issued public statements on the proposed Metrorail service cuts the WMATA Board will consider at a meeting this morning.
Transit First! and the Coalition for Smarter Growth are asking the Board to hold a public hearing next week to solicit some rider input before cutting service. At least three Board members, DC Councilmembers Jim Graham and Michael Brown and Arlington Board member Chris Zimmerman, have replied to reader emails saying they support holding a hearing. (Since official “hearings” require a 15-day notice period, it would probably be a “public forum” instead of a “hearing.”)
Transit First! also opposes the rail and bus service cuts. They are amenable to WMATA shifting some of its capital funds to operating expenses in the short term, but only if there’s a clear plan in place to pay back the money. That could come from direct cash contributions from jurisdictions, or from bus priority corridor improvements, which require jurisdictions’ support in retiming signals and adding queue jumpers or dedicated lanes to bottlenecks.
MetroRiders.org opposes the cuts as well. They have an additional suggestion to address the shortfall: accelerate the planned July 2010 fare increase to earlier in the year, generating some money for the current fiscal year to stave off some or all service cuts.
Most commenters here expressed a preference to pay more for weekend or late-night service instead of longer headways. The Board seems loathe to increase fares multiple times, largely because each increase upsets riders, and fare increases require longer lead times on hearings.
One solution, therefore, would be to speed up the schedule on deciding what fares to increase and how much. Instead of starting the new fare in July, it could start in May or June. That would require the Board moving very quickly to ask staff to present one or more fare proposals right away and publish them for public hearings.
Disclosure: I contributed to conversations about both letters with leaders and other members of both Transit First! and MRO.
You will be able to listen to the meeting here once it begins at 10 am. I’ll Tweet important developments @ggwash.