Letter to the Editor

Metro Chief Financial Officer Carol Kissal must be seriously mistaken when she believes that the economy, not the transit agency's fare increases, is responsible for revenue shortfall.  A large portion of Metro riders are federal employees, most of whom receive a large subsidy from the government to commute to work.  And even if the subsidy doesn't cover an entire month's fare, federal employees need not spend much to cover the rest.

While I, along with the rest of the Metro riders, pay for the ride in full.  Many of my fellow private sector employees have started driving or carpooling because the cost of riding Metro no longer outweigh the benefits.  Furthermore, with Metro failing to replace it's ancient 1000-series cars actually makes driving to work a safer alternative.

Furthermore, the national capital region has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.  Almost all financial analysts agree that the DC area was mostly protected from the economic disasters faced by other areas of the country like California.  Finally, tourism to DC is still high, as many families opt to take vacations within the country instead of flying internationally.  Simply put, there is no evidence that the revenue shortfall is a result of the "poor" economy.

Metro fails to understand the basics of economics.  Raising prices is going to decrease demand.  That's exactly what's happening.  Metro needs to start accepting responsibility that their greed has made the system unsustainable.

Michael Soh
Alexandria, VA

WMATA Follow-Up

A couple of weeks ago, I introduced my "private investigation" of the WMATA system here in Washington, DC.  Initial results were that WMATA was spending more than 75% on salaries, which seems awfully high considering that they have one of the worst safety records. Only 3% of their expenditures account for "preventive maintenance."

As a result of this, I sent WMATA's legal counsel a Public Access to Records Policy request, which is similar to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Here is the e-mail I received this morning:

Why does WMATA increase fares?

Like most people who live in the National Capital Region (NCR), I use the WMATA Metro system to get to work.  Over the last two years, WMATA has increased fares at least 3 times:

• Jan 6, 2008: Fare are increased for the first time since 2004.  The average increase is about $0.50


• Jun 28, 2009: Bus fares are increased by $0.10 on average


• Feb 28, 2010: Fares are "temporarily increased" by $0.10 on average

There are other fares that were increased but were not included.  Service was also trimmed several times in the last two years.

WMATA, unlike most other subway systems, does not have any dedicated funding from local governments.  Ignoring the fact that they get money from the federal, VA, MD, and DC government every year, the fact is that there is no law saying that these agencies will fund WMATA.  WMATA likes to bring this up every so often to remind people that this is why cuts must be made and fares should increase.

I say bull.