Metro commuters from Maryland to Virginia will be affected by scheduled track maintenance and station renovations, and while they saw no fare increases this year, several said it’s still too expensive and doesn’t take them where they need to go.
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the agency that oversees Metro, is spending $1.5 billion on renovations in Fiscal Year 2020, part of a larger $9.2 billion effort to get Metro back on track, according to public records on its website.
Those expenses and long-term sustainability were called into question by a 2016 master’s thesis in economics by Jasmine Simone Boatner who wrote that Metro was not economically viable, and that increased fares were leading to decreased ridership.
“In its current form, the Washington Metrorail system does not seem economically viable,” Boatner wrote in her thesis for Howard University. “With steadily declining ridership, continuing fare hikes to address the budget deficit is bad economic policy.”
Metro did not respond to two phone calls and four emails seeking comment for this story. In response to one of the emails Ian Jannetta, Metro spokesman, wrote on June 21, “Got it, thanks.”
Christopher Tyree, 32, lives in Fort Washington, Maryland near National Harbor. Tyree, a security contractor who was working at American University, drives rather than taking the Metro because, he said, the Metro doesn’t get close enough to home. He said he drives even though traffic in the district is “hell.”
“It’s very rare that I use public transportation,” Tyree said.
American University in Washington, D.C. tries to help its students with transit affordability.
Metro began offering in 2016 what it called a U-Pass, a program to make transit more affordable for students. WMATA says students pay the equivalent of $1 per day.
Prince Hyeamang, 20, uses public transportation daily, but said he would “definitely not” use public transportation without the pass.
Hyeamang, who graduated in May with a master’s in public policy, just bought a car. He said planned to use it in places where it is inconvenient or impossible to use the Metro, like in Maryland and Virginia.
“I would take the metro where I can’t drive, for example, the middle of the city,” Hyeamang said.
Kyle Cleary, 17, disagreed.
He said that Metro’s cost was not an issue for him. He said he uses Metrobus to commute to his high school and takes Metrorail to commute into the district.
Cleary said that it was “amazing” that one could get from New Carrollton to Tenleytown for $5 on Metro, which bases its fees on distance and time of day.
Cleary uses Uber, only “when I don’t have any other method of transit.”
Quincy Arrington, 37, said that Metro was “really trying to oppress poor people” with its pricing. He compared the district’s rail system with others in New York City and Chicago that use a flat-fee system.
Boatner’s thesis noted that average fares for one ride in Washington, D.C. are $2.48. She noted in her thesis that low income riders often are pushed toward Metrobuses, which she wrote are more affordable, but which also are “raising concerns of a classist system.”