Metro May Run a Surplus?

This is the kind of thing that drives us crazy about WMATA. First, the idea of major cuts is floated. The thinking there must have been to make these bus cuts go down a little easier. Oh, and we can't forget that WMATA contemplated using stimulus money to cover the budget gap.
Now, the DC Examiner is reporting that Metro might run a $9 million SURPLUS due to increased ridership.
WMATA, we realize your situation is not enviable as the ugly stepchild of MD, DC and VA who can’t seem to get their acts straight either and like to jerk your chain, but cutting service and reporting a budget surplus doesn't jive in riders' minds, and it makes you look bad.
Perhaps a little better estimating on potential revenues might be a step in the right direction. For “Metro TV” the potential ad revenue was projected at “between "$16 to $178 million.” For the high tech projecting ads at Farragut West, between “$84,000 to $168,000.”

Public Hearings and the Chopping Block

We just came back from one of Metro's six public hearings to discuss the budget and service “adjustments.”
First off, we have to say that Metro did a FANTASTIC job with signage. There was no way you weren't going to find this meeting.
Ostensibly, the meetings—this one was chaired by Chris Zimmerman and attended by Metro GM John Catoe--are held so that the public can get on the record with their views and Metro can consider those views when making final decisions.
As this was our first time, we didn't know what size crowd to expect, but since Virginia has relatively been spared the rod by some of the bus cuts, perhaps there was little interest and 40 or so was about what to expect.
The tone at the hearing was very civil, almost somnolent, so we'd hardly call John Catoe a brave man, as others have, for facing the public.
After hearing several passionate pleas to save certain bus service, particularly the 10A, we were left wondering if bus routes are easy targets for the budgetary ax because buses generally serve a lower socioeconomic demographic, one that is less likely to be engaged, speak English or voice concerns over losing service.
On the other hand, we see a lot of near empty buses (and trains) around at night, and we've always wondered why bus stops are so close together. Seriously, there are places where you can see three or four stops down the road. That's ridic, but it probably wouldn't save much money to space them out.
We get back to a point we've made before: If buses and trains could keep a schedule, Metro could cut service frequency, but allow users to plan their schedules accordingly. From all that we've experienced and heard about on this blog, that dream remains distant.
We did come away with a new appreciation for the complexity of Metro's budget.
A couple of other items of interest came up, and we'll blog about those later.

Other news:
Shocker! Dulles rail line completion delayed

Mass Transit Roundup

Amazingly, Metro has not had a derailment today, so there's time to visit a couple of other topics.

WTOP, gotta love 'em, is reporting "the idea of light rail or rapid bus service from Alexandria to Tysons Corner along Route 7 is gaining steam." If you've ever been unlucky enough to drive along Route 7 over that stretch, you know it's a hellish drive. We used to live off Columbia Pike, which is one of the more densely serviced bus corridors in metro DC, and we see how many are wary of adding more lumbering buses to crowded lanes. Plus, it seems there's a bus stop every 50 feet or so. We've seen some pretty crazy stunts pulled in order to avoid getting trapped behind a bus.

Do you think buses, as run by Metro and other local transit systems, help congestion or worsen it?

The Washington Post has a feature on Antwoin Delph, the guy who puts up those 3M Scotchcal film adverts you see in Metro sometimes. In the article, Delph seems busy, so we wonder why there are still ads on the trains talking about "the holidays." Maybe they meant Nowruz.

We'd like to give a shout out to Whiteboard "Comics" for the mention. Love the cartoon.

Greater Greater Washington has a potentially useful map overlaying the new circulator bus routes over the Metro map.

Photo: Cojon8

Metro Announces Bus Service Changes

We don't use the bus, so we can't weigh in on the impact of these changes. We'd love to hear from bus users about what kind of effect you think these will have.

Metro also announced it will begin tweeting rail delays. Not sure why they're announcing this as we've been getting an annoying quantity of tweets about Orange Line delays.