Testimony on proposed bus service cuts in the Washington region

People in the hearing room last night. There was a strong contingent of workers, one bus driver was particularly eloquent, and many people from the Justice First campaign. Their campaign is no service cuts, no layoffs, no fare increases. You know the joke that if you're not a socialist before 20 you're a boor by 30? Well, their testimonies made me feel like a "neoliberal."

Testimony regarding

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Proposed Service Adjustments and the
General Manager’s Proposed FY2010 Budget
Docket B09-3

Public Hearing #543
Metro Headquarters Building
Washington, DC

Submitted in addition to verbal testimony
April 17, 2009

Thank you, Chairman Graham and General Manager Catoe, for the opportunity to testify tonight. I am Richard Layman of the Citizens Planning Coalition, a DC-based advocacy group concerned primarily with stabilizing, maintaining, and extending the qualities that make living in the District of Columbia so worthwhile.

CPC is convinced that one of the city’s primary economic and competitive advantages rests upon the wide array of transit options serving residents, employers, retail and entertainment businesses, and visitors.

Furthermore, the richness of transit services available within the regional and specifically the City of Washington allows for optimal mobility without having to own an automobile, and more than 30% of the city’s households do not own cars—they are dependent, by choice or by need, on a robust Metropolitan Transit Network* and efficient services provided through an interconnected transit network.

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* The Metropolitan Transit Network has been defined conceptually by the Citizens Planning Coalition, extending concepts expressed in the Transit Network Element of the Arlington County Master Transportation Plan (and Draft). This definitional framework has been attached to this testimony as an appendix.

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Recently, the City of Toronto and the Toronto Transit Commission introduced a new concept, called “Transit City,” to shape expansion planning. According to the Toronto Star** :

"Transit City is based on the principle that no one should be disadvantaged by not owning a car. (It) takes the high-quality transit service available in the core and begins to extend that to the four corners of Toronto," said TTC chair Adam Giambrone.

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** “Toronto Plan rolls out new era in Transit,” Toronto Star, 11/24/2008.

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Social equity objectives are met by providing a pervasive transit network, and by extending transit service, not by reducing or eliminating transit service.

Using a commonly available inflation calculator, 75 cents in 1987 is worth $1.35 today. In 1987, fares on Metrobus were 75 cents in the City and 85 cents in the suburbs. Today, bus fares are $1.25 with a SmartCard and $1.35 if paid in cash.

Despite increases in energy costs, particularly the cost of diesel oil, personnel and other costs, in constant dollars, for the last 21 years, WMATA bus fares have not increased, they have barely stayed even with inflation—and bus fares have not stayed even with inflation if the rider uses a SmartCard.

While no one likes to consider fare increases, bus service in the Washington region is about to suffer its most severe cutback in many years.

As a result of forecasted budget deficits and the need to reach a balanced budget, the WMATA board voted to hold public hearings. Because board members from DC blocked consideration of a 5-cent across-the-board fare increase as an alternative to service cuts, only service cuts are being considered.

While we respect DC’s board members and their principled opposition to fare increases, which is driven by concerns for social equity and compassion for those with limited incomes, the reality is that the alternative, service cuts, can mean catastrophic deleterious impacts for the specific segments of the public that have to deal with the impact of real service cuts and route eliminations.

The amount of money to be saved by service cuts is about $13.5 million. Most other major cities across the United States charge significantly more for base fares for bus or subway service, compared to WMATA. If WMATA were able to raise bus fares by between 10 and 15 cents, no service would have to be cut.

We ask whether it is fair and equitable to demand that specific segments of the transit-using public experience significant hardship as a result of these changes, to the benefit of the broader ridership public which will experience limited if any changes to the service on bus routes they regularly use?

Our answer is “no,” we believe that it is better for the entire ridership public to sacrifice slightly by paying marginally higher bus fares (fares that would still generally be lower than those charged in most major U.S. cities), rather than expect that particular segments of the ridership public bear the brunt of specific, significant service cuts and route eliminations.

Because the transit services in the region follow WMATA’s lead in terms of setting the price of base fares, the decision to not consider fare increases has cascading and increasing impact on other non-Metrobus public transit service provided within the region.

Because of similar financial problems, Montgomery County's Ride On, Fairfax County's Fairfax Connector and Alexandria's DASH are planning cut backs in transit service also, in addition to the bus service cuts planned by WMATA.

This likely would not be the case, if a slight fare increase were on the table for WMATA, because suburban transit services would have “political cover,” to adopt a fare increase in tandem, thereby limiting the need for service cuts.

WMATA subway and bus operations are experiencing continued record ridership, not to mention WMATA’s triumphs during Inauguration Week, and WMATA is the nation’s second busiest transit system, despite the fact that the region is only the nation’s eighth most populated metropolitan region. And while the regional economy is suffering, on a national basis the Washington region, especially the inner core, is relatively healthy.

Let's face it, despite all the complaints of those here at the hearing tonight, we have a great transit system--sure it can always improve--and compared to the budget crises faced by other transit systems across the country--in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and elsewhere--transit riders in the Washington region are relatively well off.

But what matters most is not what is happening elsewhere with transit system budgets and service, what matters to us in the Washington region most is what is happening here, with our transit services!

First, we must ask this question:

Is it worth keeping fares the same at the cost of service cuts that disproportionately impact certain segments of the bus riding public, and will the proposed service cuts make it difficult for many people to use transit?

Second, while fare increases are never desired, sound public policy means that they should be considered, when the alternative is significant cuts in service, even if those cuts in service will mostly impact suburban riders, rather than Washington residents.

Third, we ask that with this matter specifically, and going forward more generally, that the DC Government and DC’s appointees to the WMATA Board think more broadly about transit and how the sum of “jurisdictionally-specific” thinking must produce a Metropolitan transit system greater than the sum of its parts.

In this case, DC’s unwillingness to consider bus fare increases as part of the FY2010 Budget —negatively impacts the entire region and its Metropolitan Transit Network. We do not believe that it is fair for the entire region to be negatively impacted by overly parochial decision-making on the part of the DC members of the WMATA Compact.

The unintended consequences of significant service cuts and route eliminations in Maryland and Virginia as a result of posturing on the possibility of fare increases is but one example of how DC needs to step up and provide “world-class” “regionally-sound” leadership on transit issues.

Fourth, to maintain the position of the District of Columbia as “a transit city” and the Washington Metropolitan area as “a transit region,” we must maintain a robust Metropolitan-regional transit network. Despite financial exigency, bus service cuts should be an option of absolutely last resort, after all other options, including fare increases, have been considered and exhausted.

Therefore, the Citizens Planning Coalition asks the WMATA Board to reconsider service cuts in bus service, and put the possibility of a fare increase back on the table for consideration.

For this to happen, the DC City Council and Mayor Fenty must instruct DC’s voting representatives on the WMATA Board to change their stated position on the possibility of fare increases.

Thank you for your consideration of this recommendation.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Washington Metropolitan Transit Network
Working Document – Version 2.0, April 17th, 2009
Citizens Planning Coalition

A framework for an all encompassing DC-MD-VA transit network

This framework is predicated on a large base of transit users, a high-capacity transit network to move people around, connections to destinations that people want to visit, and activity centers that are visited regularly (especially the workplace). Buses running on routes with few riders aren’t cost effective. As articulated, the Washington Metropolitan Transit Network functions within a broader, multi-state, Regional Transit Network.

At both the Regional and Metropolitan levels, the overarching networks are defined by their provision of foundational “trunk line” service. Differences between the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary subnetwork categories are defined by speed, capacity and reach of the service, and how it connects to nodes within the overarching Metropolitan Transit Network.

Meta (or Multi-state) Regional Transit Network: MARC and VRE service ideally combined into one multi-state compact and system, with service as far south as Norfolk and as far north as Wilmington, DE and Harrisburg, PA, west to Charlottesville, VA (or beyond), and connections to West Virginia, with intermodal stations connecting to heavy and light rail transit systems; supplemented by Amtrak. Water-based transportation services could augment fixed rail service. At certain nodes connections are made with the Metropolitan Transit Network.

Washington DC Metropolitan Transit Network: WMATA subway system; ferry system if added; cross-jurisdictional bus rapid transit; commuter services oriented to moving people between home and major job centers within the region, across jurisdictional boundaries (i.e., OmniRide from Prince William County, which provides commuter-oriented service to Metro stations and job centers, with an end point in DC [and back] or the MTA Commuter buses).

Suburban Primary Transit Network: public transit systems operated by Counties and Cities in the Washington region providing bus, streetcar, and light rail service within the suburbs, providing connections to major activity destinations, stations (nodes) within the regional transit network, and potentially providing cross-jurisdictional service.

Suburban Secondary Transit Network: intra-jurisdictional municipal transit service; private shuttle services.

DC Primary Transit Network: The DC transit network considers the WMATA subway stations within DC as a subsystem of the full WMATA subway network. The primary network is comprised of the 29 subway stations in the inner core of DC (see map below); the proposed streetcar system; high frequency Metrobus and MetroExtra--express or limited stop—service (i.e., 30s, 70s, S, 90s, X, 50s lines); Downtown Circulator bus service; cross-jurisdictional WMATA bus service.

DC Secondary Transit Network: the other 11 subway stations in the city; other WMATA bus service within the city (i.e., 60s, G8); secondary DC Circulator routes (Adams Morgan-Columbia Heights-McPherson Square, Union Station-Capitol Hill-Navy Yard); Georgetown Connector shuttle service; water taxi service if added (based on the likely impact of utilization, which is projected to be minimal).

DC Tertiary Transit Network: intra-neighborhood bus services; private shuttle services (i.e., Washington Hospital Center to/from Brookland Metro, university shuttle services, etc.). This proposed tier of service would be comprised of an intra-neighborhood transit service that could be free (depending on monies provided separately by DC), and oriented to getting people to and from within a neighborhood, to main transit lines and stations without having to drive, and including delivery of goods and services from local commercial districts. The Tempe Orbit bus system in Tempe, Arizona is one model for this type of mobility option.

The subway stations defining the boundaries of the DC Primary Transit Network are Foggy Bottom on the west, Stadium-Armory on the east, Van Ness on the northwest, and Brookland on the northeast. (Fort Totten, pictured on this map, is not included in the definition of the Primary Transit Network, based on urban design and population density.)