WMATA - FY 2018 budget prep

[JDC]

Metro's Board will receive a presentation on Thursday as prep for the FY 2018 budget. One of the proposals is closing the lowest ridership stations during off-peak periods (inc. weekends). http://wmata.com/about_metro/board_of_d ... etPrep.pdf

[JackRussell]

Metro's Board will receive a presentation on Thursday as prep for the FY 2018 budget. One of the proposals is closing the lowest ridership stations during off-peak periods (inc. weekends). http://wmata.com/about_metro/board_of_d ... etPrep.pdf

The proposal to close stations in off-peak periods horrifies me. Orange, Blue and Silver lines take it in the shorts. PG county and Tysons Corner get the worst cuts.

But I think the proposal is really an attempt to get the localities to take the funding problems more seriously.

[MCL1981]

Only at WMATA. Build this new Silver Line based on bloated estimated ridership numbers, then promptly close all the brand new stations due to low actual ridership.

[JackRussell]

Only at WMATA. Build this new Silver Line based on bloated estimated ridership numbers, then promptly close all the brand new stations due to low actual ridership.

That's not fair at all. When the first sections of the Red line were built through DC, the ridership was low as well. The first time I went to Clarendon, there were no high rises there at all - mostly old single-story buildings and vacant lots that were being used as parking lots, and a handful of restaurants.

There are currently tower cranes all over the place in Tysons - they are building 20-30 story buildings all over the place - mostly housing at this point, but some are mixed use.

[MCL1981]

As I recall, all the ridership estimates WMATA touted for the initial opening of the siliver line were totally bunked. I'm not talking about future ridership estimates. I'm talking about today ridership estimates. It's apparently so low that they can simply close the stations.

[JackRussell]

As I recall, all the ridership estimates WMATA touted for the initial opening of the siliver line were totally bunked. I'm not talking about future ridership estimates. I'm talking about today ridership estimates. It's apparently so low that they can simply close the stations.

And I thought the ridership was above projections, not below.

That's all well and good for people who don't live next to one of those stations. If you start shutting down stations, it isn't clear that the TOD will proceed to the point where the stations ever have the ridership that you seem to think is needed for them to be deemed worthy.

This is the death-spiral that a lot of people have warned about. You start closing stations and fewer people will take the train (you already have that in smaller amounts with the midnight closures). Then you re-evaluate based on this new information, and decide that some more stations can be closed, and the next thing you know they decide to shut the system down on weekends because nobody wants to deal the degraded service.

[MCL1981]

Yep. The death spiral has been evident for several years now. If the media wasn't Metro's personal PR mouthpiece for the last 40 years, perhaps it wouldn't have gotten to this point.