Desperate times sometimes lead to a more marketing-oriented guise: WMATA/Metrorail | Bonus: WMATA's financial crisis

First, in the early years of the blog I wrote a lot of pieces about transit marketing and doing a better job of it.  Now a goodly amount of that is encapsulated in "Branding's (NOT) all you need for transit" (2018), but old pieces like "Making Transit Sexy" (2005), make the point too, less sophisticatedly.

Second, during the 2008 crash, I got an email from an activist in response to all the budget and service cuts faced by transit systems.  She said, why can't transit systems be like the system in Rochester, New York ("Creativity Helps Rochester's Transit System Turn a Profit," New York Times), which gets a significant amount of financial support from institutions, who recognize the impact of transit on their organizational community.  That money provides a base level of support independent of fare revenues and government appropriations.

My response was you don't develop such relationships in crisis, but when times are good, and hopefully, those relationships and funding streams can survive exogenous shocks.

WMATA is in financial crisis because of the decline of transit ridership due to telecommuting ("Metro says funding increase needed to avoid catastrophic cuts," Washington Post) but also its financing structure ("Next Stop: Fiscal Cliff  | Inherent Flaws in Metro's Funding Model Are Steering It Right Into A Financial Crisis," Washington Business Journal -- note that I disagree with some of the major points made in the article).  

WMATA's been in organizational crisis for almost 15 years, and even without that crisis, I argued in 2009 before the train crash that it needed to rebuild the metropolitan consensus on transit, which needed to be rebuilt anyway because it was about 40 years after the initial development of the system ("Getting WMATA out of crisis: a continuation of a multi-year problem that keeps getting worse, not better," 2015).

As revenues have dropped because of the service crisis, WMATA has finally introduced a variety of fare innovations.  They still pale compared to systems like London Underground and Melbourne, but for the DC area, they are a step forward.

I was shocked to read in today's Post that this evening, starting at 5pm, Metrorail and Metrobus will be free, to support people going to and from the fireworks.  From the article:

Metro rides are free after 5 p.m. Tuesday 

Officials suggest taking Metro to get to the Mall. Starting at 5 p.m. on the 4th, Metro will offer free transit to access celebrations throughout the D.C. area. The waived fare will be in effect until the rail system closes at midnight, but applies to all rail, bus and paratransit services. Customers will not need a SmarTrip card during those seven hours. The agency will begin increasing service after 4 p.m. to accommodate crowds. 

Officials say the increased service is meant to mitigate some delays and detours near the Mall that are expected because of road closures. Red Line trains will operate every six minutes, while Blue, Orange and Silver line trains will arrive every 12 minutes. Trains on the Green and Yellow lines will arrive every eight minutes from open to close. 

“Metro will be celebrating Independence Day the best way we can — by providing frequent service to help customers get to the festivities around the region and back home safely,” Metro General Manager Randy Clarke said in a statement.

That's not unlike what I've suggested for the Inauguration ("Should transit on Inauguration Day be free?," 2013/2016) and other super special events ("Washington Cherry Blossom Festival and event transit," 2023).

It's probably too little too late.

All the pundits say the biggest problem is the lack of a regularized funding source, like property tax or sales tax ("DC area transit commission board member thinks he has a brilliant idea on how to fund Metrorail: sales taxes," 2022; "Metrolinx Toronto: 25 potential tools to fund transit-transportation infrastructure," 2013).  And absolutely that it is a key issue.  

But like 2008 and the example of Rochester New York transit, the time to create a regularized funding stream for WMATA was in the late 1970s and early 1980s when the system was opening and expanding and ran great.  Crisis is a crappy time to ask for money, especially when your service quality is declining.

Note that every transit system in the country pretty much has the same problem of loss of revenues.  Few systems have recovered more than 50% of their pre-covid ridership.  

California just provided a big bailout to SF MUNI and BART as an example.  But the DC area's funding for transit is split between three states and each has different motivations, making doing the right thing difficult.

From "DC area transit commission board member thinks he has a brilliant idea on how to fund Metrorail: sales taxes":

1.  Crisis is a bad time to ask for money.  

2.  The three jurisdictions controlling WMATA, Maryland, Virginia, and DC, disagree on the purpose of transit.  

3. The best time to ask for regularized funding is when you're successful.  

Rebuilding the regional consensus about transit.

Transit financing

My solution: Step 1: creating a regional transport association.

Step 2: Separate planning from budgeting.  

Step 3: Fix the Funding.  Yep, it needs to be done, but not just for Metrorail, for all of the regional transit services. 

Step 4: WRT WMATA, declare force majeure, and contract out operation of the heavy rail system to Hong Kong's MTR.  Start over.  

Step 5: Reconfigure bus service in the metropolitan area.