WMATA’s Fight for Financial Stability
Luci Garza — May 6, 2024
Since opening in 1979, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has served as a vital transportation network for residents, commuters, and visitors throughout the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) region. With rail and bus services spanning the capital area, WMATA ranks among the largest transit agencies in the U.S., alongside the Chicago Transit Authority and New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Yet, unlike its peer systems, WMATA lacks dedicated operating funds, relying instead on a patchwork of local subsidies and emergency federal and state support.
This structural funding gap has long left WMATA vulnerable to a long-standing cycle of financial instability. On April 10, Metro’s Board of Directors approved a $4.96 billion fiscal 2026 budget to boost security and extend service without another fare hike. Last year, a projected $750 million deficit forced Virginia and Maryland to step in with additional funding, temporarily averting WMATA’s looming “fiscal cliff” until 2028.
The 2026 fiscal year begins on Sunday, June 22, although the agency and its affiliates are already looking into the beginning of the planning process for the fiscal year of 2027. Shannon Bacon, a program Analyst at the Northern Virginia Transit Commission (NVTC), said that conversations are in the works about potential changes to the Yellow and Silver lines, as well as automating more than just the Red line.
“Earlier this month, they pitched service optimization concepts to like additional peak service on the Silver Line,” Bacon said. “We want to make sure that brass tacks, dollars and cents, that we're not going to be on the hook for something that you're saying it's going to be funded through just running more efficient service.”
While budget negotiations continue, ridership trends are showing signs of recovery after the sharp declines caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to WMATA’s Daily Ridership Portal, the agency experienced a steep drop in both rail and bus usage in 2020, although this number dipped even lower going into 2021.
In the height of the pandemic, the transit agency shut down 19 stations, including the Smithsonian and Arlington Cemetery stations, to save on the sanitizing of escalators, elevators, turnstiles, and anything people come into contact with, according to the Washington Post. With this, the agency also suspended collecting fares as a way to help operators maintain social distancing amidst the pandemic, later reporting a $200 million budget shortfall from this time.
However, this past year, WMATA reported all-time high ridership numbers for the first time since 2019, surpassing a combined one million riders a day on bus and rail. According to WMATA’s program manager, Adam Hager, the agency is anticipating about $20 million more in fare revenue from this increase at the start of the calendar year.
“There were lots of moving parts that happened over the last four or five months with the new administration getting federal workers back in the office,” Hager said. “So obviously there was a big jolt to ridership, right as Metro was trying to finalize its budget.”
Federal employees, who make up roughly 20 percent of the region’s labor force, according to the Partnership for Public Service, were once a dominant share of weekday riders. Now, some Metro officials worry about the results of the Trump administration's hot-and-cold relationship in regards to federal employees, firing many since first ordering them back into the office.
“There’s a whole team devoted to using different models that factor in lots of internal and external factors to the system that determine what they eventually think,” Hager said. “It's one of those things where you want to be as precise as you can, but it's not a science, it's an art.”
Just months after the Trump administration’s first executive order firing federal workers, Hager said the ripple effects from the administration’s sweeping decisions, and their impact on public transportation trends, will not be able to be seen in just a couple of months. Instead, he said, the agency must focus on securing sustainable and long-term funding.
As WMATA still recovers from its losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, FY2025’s extra state support required suspending a law in both Maryland and Virginia that caps annual subsidy increases at 3 percent. With that stopgap in place, WMATA has been working on long-term solutions to fully fund its operating budget, according to Hager.
“Metro relies on subsidies because they are investments in the system,” Hager said. “The way Maryland, D.C., and Virginia fund the system, those local dollars compete with other interests, and what Metro wants is a predictable and sustainable funding source.”
Virginia has since established the SJ28 subcommittee during its 2024 General Assembly session to explore long-term funding solutions. Matthew Girardi, a civilian appointee and political director for Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, said the subcommittee has discussed options ranging from real estate transfer taxes to regional delivery fees.
But each proposal comes with trade-offs. For instance, a regional sales tax, while potentially lucrative, could disproportionately affect lower-income households, according to a study done by Northeastern University.
“They want to see additional policy analysis done on a land value tax in 2025,” Girardi said. “There was also discussion of tolling I-66 inside the Beltway and adding a tax on rental cars.”
ATU Local 689 represents the majority of transit workers not only at WMATA, but also at several Northern Virginia agencies, including the Fairfax Connector and Arlington’s DASH system. As a representative of labor, Girardi said that his position on the subcommittee has led to some operational differences within the group.
“A lot of folks, especially back then, but even to this day, are still outwardly and viciously hostile towards 689 and organized labor,” Girardi said. “ I think as a region, we understand that we're going to sink or swim together, but there is still some of that opposition to fully integrating.”
According to Girardi, WMATA’s fate into being a well-funded transit agency goes beyond the transportation sphere: it’s crucial to the region’s economic health, equity, and future sustainability. More than just closing the current budget gap, it involves a stream of revenue that can endure economic fluctuations and retain its value over time.
“This is a public good that everybody should have the right to enjoy,” Girardi said. “Whether you are poor or disabled or you can't afford a car or you can't drive a car for whatever reason, you deserve to be able to navigate this region with dignity and convenience and accessibility.”
D.C.’s Metro Gets a Sixth Sense with WayMap
Luci Garza — March 24, 2025
Washington, D.C., is now the first city in the world where the blind and low vision community can navigate with only a phone and an app.
On Feb. 12, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) announced that any Metro user would now be able to download WayMap, an app designed for the blind and low-vision community. This followed a two-year pilot program in which all 98 rail stations, 11,000 bus stops, and 325 bus routes were mapped into the app's interface. Currently, Washington, D.C., is the first city to be entirely accessible by WayMap.
WayMap was originally founded in 2017 by Tom Pey, an advisory board member at the Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind, and has since made $10.75 million. After Pey lost his vision at the age of 39, he created the app to give users turn-by-turn, step-by-step audio instructions with up to three feet of accuracy throughout a rider’s journey. Since Metro stations are largely underground, the app does not rely on a mobile phone’s signal but rather on motion sensors inside the phone itself—the first of its kind.
Pey and his team at WayMap first met with WMATA executives at the digital accessibility conference M-Enabling Summit in Arlington in 2021. According to a news release, executives were drawn to WayMap’s unique technology. Later that year, a pro bono partnership was reached at no cost to WMATA. Pey has said that he wanted to bring WayMap to D.C. to move the U.K.-founded app closer to accessibility and policymaking movements, according to Technical.ly.
Before WayMap’s launch with WMATA, the app went through a two-year pilot program in which developers tweaked how riders would interact with it. Evelyn Valdez, an advocate for the blind community, was recommended by the Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind to beta test the app after losing her vision at 17. Valdez said at first, she was unsure of the app's capabilities, especially as a frequent Metro user.
“I’m a big fan of technology, but I’m also a big fan of relying on my brain,” Valdez said. “I had to understand that technology is helpful because I tried to depend solely on my brain.”
Valdez said she quickly saw the benefits the app would bring to D.C. during her beta testing period. Nearly 180,000 people living in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area are blind or visually impaired, according to WMATA’s news release from the announcement.
“It’s able to capture just so much information and allow the user to personalize the app for their needs,” Valdez said. “What really got me was the fact that you feel so safe with it, and how precise and specific it is.”
While WayMap is designed for those with visual impairments, anybody can download the app for free across various app store platforms. The app works by giving audio instructions to users and accounting for obstacles like changes in pavement or human traffic. As a beta tester, Valdez offered insight into her experiences using the app, noting these small details.
“Because I’m from the New York and Jersey area, I walk up and down (the escalator)—I don’t ride it up or down,” Valdez said. “During the beta testing sessions, when I started to walk up the escalator, the app got stuck because it had been calibrated that individuals are riding the escalator up or down. So my recommendation to the engineers was to let you walk up or walk down without the app getting frozen.”
For some, newer forms of technology relating to accessibility require a learning curve. Joe DePhillips, a retired federal employee who is low-vision, said he has been trying to understand and use the app better since learning about the partnership. DePhillips said he relied on Metro for much of his career to commute from his home in Rosslyn and has memorized the route almost by heart.
“It’s not that I’m averse to apps, and I will use them if I need to, but my main way of getting around is the old-fashioned way,” DePhillips said. “If I’m not sure of something, you got to speak up, you got to ask. I may not have my full vision, but I have a pretty good brain.”
Before his retirement, DePhillips worked at the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research, which provides colleges and universities with grants for rehabilitation research and training centers. In January, the Trump administration announced an executive order that would end “wasteful and radical government DEI programs and preferencing,” such as the one that formerly employed DePhillips.
Since the announcement, academics across the country have received notice that federal grants and funding for research on a multitude of issues have been canceled. Around 10,000 grants have been “put under review,” according to the National Science Foundation, for containing keywords such as “disability” and “systematic.”
Tara Goddard, an assistant professor at Texas A&M University, focuses her research on the interactions of transportation culture, behavior, and infrastructure on differential experiences and safety outcomes for people who walk and wheel. Most recently, Goddard was awarded federal funding to research racial and socioeconomic inequities in active transportation safety, although Trump’s executive order made this short-lived.
“It was basically a bingo card of all the terms that they’re attacking,” Goddard said. “So, it wasn’t a surprise, but it was really disappointing and frustrating.”
Goddard’s research is much like the research that brought WayMap to Washington, D.C., and she said that now researchers must find terminology loopholes to keep funding for their projects alive. For example, Goddard said that rather than using the word sustainability, resilience is less likely to be flagged.
“If the people in power right now are the most concerned about the efficiency of economics, then we frame the project or the terms that are more acceptable,” Goddard said. “But if you dig into it, you realize that it is still going to have the same benefits of helping the same population.”
Every $1 of taxpayer money that goes into the National Weather Service produces $73 in benefits to the American people, according to a 2019 study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Goddard said this is just one example of how federally funded projects and research can bring significant long-term impacts to communities, much like the work WayMap researchers have brought to Metro.
“A lot of us--we’re sad, we’re angry, but we also want to do this work because we really believe in it and we really care about it,” Goddard said.
In the future, Valdez hopes to see larger strides toward accessibility and connection. While she credits Metro for taking steps in the right direction with its partnership with WayMap, she acknowledged that accessibility must extend beyond major metropolitan areas. She hopes those in rural and suburban communities, where transit infrastructure is often lacking, can also benefit from similar innovations.
“Access means that you’re not only connecting people, you’re connecting communities,” Valdez said. “You’re connecting communities that would have never been connected before, and that is a big deal.”
New Metro Rule Bars Riders with Violent Convictions
Luci Garza — April 10, 2025
Stepping into a Metro station may soon feel a little different, as the Washington Metropolitan Transportation Agency (WMATA) aims to crack down on safety and crime.
Most recently, Metro announced the adoption of a policy to ban violent and sexual offenders. According to the agency, the purpose is to prohibit offenders from entering or using Metro’s system, properties, or facilities for a period exceeding 24 hours. Under this policy, depending on an individual's first, second, or third offense, they can be banned for a duration ranging from 45 days to a year, starting June 2.
This decision echoes a political shift among local leaders in D.C, as well as other cities, to increase police presence in public spaces, a concern that helped bring Donald Trump back into office in 2024. According to Pew Research Center, 61 percent of registered voters say that the criminal justice system in the United States is not tough enough on criminals.
Hours after Metro made the announcement, an executive order was signed by Trump to establish the D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force. This executive order, according to the White House, will promote police presence in public areas, maximize immigration enforcement, expedite concealed carry licenses, and crack down on Metro fare evasion.
Metro’s announcement also follows a stark jump in viewpoint from just five years ago, amidst Black Lives Matter protests and the murder of George Floyd sparked heated debate about police overreach and involvement across the country. In 2021, Metro dropped a similar proposal to ban sex offenders after more than 100 letters against the ban were sent to a Metro board member's home, followed by protests at several Metro stations. Yet on Thursday, the proposal passed unanimously.
Benjamin Lynn, the local spokesperson for the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 (ATU Local 689), said that the union has long been fighting for protections against Metro employees. While they did not take a stance on the proposal in 2021, Lynn now calls the decision a step forward
“The union is now calling on lawmakers within the district and federal levels to enact further protections,” Lynn said. “Yes, protecting passengers is important, but we are also looking for further actions from lawmakers to better protect transit workers from dangerous assaults.”
According to Metro, there were 227 assaults on employees last year, four of which were committed by repeat offenders. There were 76 sex crimes on the system, 61 committed by repeat offenders. The proposal also highlights how crime in the system is currently at its lowest in seven years, down 65 percent from 2023.
Rowa Nawari, 20, has fallen victim to offenders on the Metro system firsthand. Just a month ago, she recalled an experience with a man she did not know, who followed her into a Metro station.
“I remember walking into the Metro Center stop, and each step I took, I remember seeing the same guy,” Nawari said. “When I finally got off at my stop, I realized he had gotten off too, and was still following me.”
Anacostia, Gallery Place, and L’enfant Plaza are among the stations that report the most assaults, according to WMATA reports. Nawari said that her experience opened her eyes to the prevalence of offenders in Metro stations, and she hopes the future ban will help others avoid similar experiences.
“Afterwards, I realized how easy it is to do things like that and not get caught,” Nawari said. “Nobody really noticed, even me for a while, that this guy was following me or being shady, and that was scary.”
Peer transit agencies, such as Bay Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco or the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York, have worked to adopt similar policies in recent years. Cora Erice, a Brooklyn native, said she holds serious doubts about WMATA’s promise of enforcement after a lifetime of experiences in New York.
“I have never seen anyone in New York do anything to offenders if they are bothering people,” Erice said. “There, everyone just adjusts and does their best to ignore it and move on with their day.”
The Metro Transit Police Department (MTPD) may currently ban a person for up to 24 hours for violating passenger conduct rules, such as abusive behavior. Additionally, local courts can impose bans on offenders for several weeks from specific train stations or bus lines where crimes occur.
Come June, when a rider is banned, their information will go into a database that will suspend their SmartTrip card from being able to be used. Offenders will also have five days to appeal. In their announcement, Metro also said that they believe their employees are aware of troublesome riders – about 40 or so offenders – and will be alert to notify MTPD accordingly.
Metro Transit Police Chief Michael Anzallo told Fox5 that these targeted, repeat offenders are recognizable to officers and are also frequently caught on camera. Even for non-repeat offenders, those committing crimes will be seen on Metro’s extensive system of cameras throughout stations and bus stops to work to enforce this ban, according to Anzallo.
But as Metro tightens its grip underground, questions remain about how enforcement will extend to the city’s bus network above. Lynn, too, says the union is working to address adequate protections and recourse in place for bus operators.
“There was some movement to try to have buses for the public transit systems adopt some sort of shield, or barrier to segregate the operator from the door for the passengers,” Lynn said. “You can't completely eliminate it, it's just things you can do to try to minimize it.”
In 2024, WMATA said employee assaults were most common along the B2, X2, and 70 bus routes, but did not state any precautions for bus operators in their proposal of the ban. In the future, Lynn says the 689 is partnering with other jurisdictions in Maryland and Virginia to continue to protect bus operators.
“Safety has been a long-time concern and priority for the Union, not just for our members and the other labor-represented folks, but even the non-labor-represented folks,” Lynn said. “We're here to provide a service to the public, whether they're the local commuters or tourists, we want to make sure they have a safe experience as well.”
Fare Play? WMATA’s Budget Revamp Aims to Curb Metrobus Evasion
Luci Garza — March 17, 2025
Most Metro riders can remember the day that new, infamously hard-to-evade turnstiles were installed throughout the 98 stations within the District of Columbia. Since their debut in 2023, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA) says that fare evasion rates have been reduced by up to 70 percent. However, above ground, curbing fare-evasion tactics on WMATA’s Metrobus system has proven to be more challenging.
The Washington Post reported that 70 percent of Metrobus riders do not pay fares, prompting WMATA to rethink the way it formulates its budget for the first time in over 25 years. At WMATA’s annual board meeting to discuss Metrobus’s now-approved $483 million budget, local governments in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia were asked to contribute based on their jurisdiction's corresponding number of paying riders. Previously, this contribution was determined by the correlation of rider usage in each area, without taking into account the ratio of paying to non-paying riders.
This change in formula does not alter Metrobus’s current $2.25 flat fare, but WMATA hopes the change will bring an incentive for bus riders to encourage riders to pay their fares. However, it is currently not stated anywhere in Metro’s bus operator training manual that operators need to enforce fares.
Naiya Vasquez-Castaneda, a recent college graduate, often takes Metrobus to commute to work and travel throughout the city. She said that come this summer, she is curious to see if Metro’s plan will take off in the real world.
“I think it will be interesting to see if there is any real change that happens on the bus,” Vasquez-Castaneda said. “I always pay my fare, but I don’t know if operators can really make people pay their fare.”
Before WMATA’s $4.8 billion budget was approved on Feb. 3, some local officials proposed that the system should eliminate the idea of paying their fares entirely. Charles Allen, who is also the chair of the council’s Committee on Transportation and Environment, proposed that WMATA become a fare-free system, echoing WMATA’s fare-free pandemic procedures in 2020. The proposal was later struck down by Mayor Muriel Bowser, as she called for more analysis of the costs despite a unanimous decision from the D.C. Council in 2023.
In 2020, WMATA suspended collecting fares as a way to help operators maintain social distancing amidst the pandemic. By 2021, WMATA officials said their short period of fare-free service significantly impacted their budget and revenue, reporting a $200 million budget shortfall from this period. Currently, collecting fares currently makes up two-thirds of the agency’s $365 million revenue, about $50 million of which is brought in by Metrobus.
Benjamin Lynn, the local spokesperson for the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 (ATU Local 689), said that the union already represents some drivers who work under a fare-free system, following the pandemic. For example, Alexandria, Virginia’s DASH system has been fare-free since Sept. 2021 after being awarded $7.2 million in state grant funding.
“Our members operating the bus aren't responsible for enforcing the fare, and that's what we would like to continue to see moving towards fare-free as one possibility,” Lynn said.
Kansas City, Missouri., is now the largest city in the country that has continued to operate under a fare-free system. Tyler Means, the chief strategy officer for the Kansas City Transit Authority (KCATA), said that since the introduction of this system in 2020, ridership has risen.
“When you remove the friction and you open up the doors, you will see a growth in ridership,” Means said. “And we are one of the transit agencies who had some of the best returns coming out of COVID in terms of our ridership coming back.”
Means said that KCATA was able to continue funding its fare-free system using money that they were given from the federal government. As a larger-scale transit agency, Metro is still working to recover from the revenue losses and low ridership following the pandemic. This month, WMATA’s general manager, Randy Clarke, recently told News4 that WMATA anticipates carrying 1 million passengers on their trains and buses during the week – a record high for the first time in five years.
Yet, WMATA’s call for a budget that revolves around fares being paid on bus rides has also raised concerns about the safety of operators and what could happen if met with a rider who refuses to pay their fare. Lynn said that the safety of both riders and passengers could potentially be put at risk.
We've seen in past situations, not just in our region, but across the country, where the operator is put in a position to try to enforce someone to pay for the bus,” Lynn said. “Sometimes that interaction has led to assaults, verbal abuse, physical abuse, altercations that have, in some cases, tragically turned violent.”
The new WMATA budget formula will be enacted for the first time for the fiscal year of 2026, which begins on July 1. Lynn says the union still worries that the change in formula is not sustainable enough for the future of WMATA and its operators.
“It's an archaic formula,” Lynn said. “They try to update it and streamline it, but I think a big concern for us is it's just a temporary fix and a patch, but ultimately, the system still needs dedicated sustainable funding.”