No fare hikes in D.C. WMATA?

[Anonymous]

Anyone know if D.C. or the DMV region for WMATA are matching this MTA policy thanks to the new Infrastructure law?

[Anonymous]

Why would there be fare hikes due to the infrastructure legislation? I don't get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why would there be fare hikes due to the infrastructure legislation? I don't get it.

I believe the implication is that will WMATA still hike fares with the potential funding from the new legislation?

WMATA is going to need to do something in the near future with declining ridership and deferred maintenance. Usually, WMATA threatens the local governments with shutting down. Recently, HQ2 dumped some cash into WMATA for their new stop in Crystal City with WMATA seeing future revenue at the new stop. But teleworking threatens to make WMATA even more unprofitable as businesses won't be subsidizing travel anymore. So what to do? The deferred maintenance won't keep waiting. WMATA also has to keep making pension payments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I believe the implication is that will WMATA still hike fares with the potential funding from the new legislation?

WMATA is going to need to do something in the near future with declining ridership and deferred maintenance. Usually, WMATA threatens the local governments with shutting down. Recently, HQ2 dumped some cash into WMATA for their new stop in Crystal City with WMATA seeing future revenue at the new stop. But teleworking threatens to make WMATA even more unprofitable as businesses won't be subsidizing travel anymore. So what to do? The deferred maintenance won't keep waiting. WMATA also has to keep making pension payments.

Thanks for your explanation. Generally agree on all your points.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would there be fare hikes due to the infrastructure legislation? I don't get it.

I believe the implication is that will WMATA still hike fares with the potential funding from the new legislation?

WMATA is going to need to do something in the near future with declining ridership and deferred maintenance. Usually, WMATA threatens the local governments with shutting down. Recently, HQ2 dumped some cash into WMATA for their new stop in Crystal City with WMATA seeing future revenue at the new stop. But teleworking threatens to make WMATA even more unprofitable as businesses won't be subsidizing travel anymore. So what to do? The deferred maintenance won't keep waiting. WMATA also has to keep making pension payments.

The Silver Line opens up in Spring 2022 - Summer 2022 so there's that factor. But beyond that its just a question of will ridership go up in general in 2022 with RTW?

It slow-going but approaching normal numbers in New York. They're back to about 55% of their ridership levels and climbing.

MTA Announces New Pandemic-Era Ridership Records Set on NYCT Subway, LIRR, Metro-North, Paratransit and SI Railway

Subway ridership topped 3.3 million riders for the first time in the pandemic at 3,359,115 on Oct. 28 (rolling over the previous record set the day before by 60,000 riders) and exceeded 3.2 million on three of the last five weekdays, notably Oct. 22 through 28.

Prior to the pandemic, average weekday ridership totals routinely exceeded 5.5 million in the subway system.

https://new.mta.info/press-release/mta-announces-new-pandemic-era-ridership-records-set-nyct-subway-lirr-metro-north

[Anonymous]

I think it’s just a poorly constructed sentence.

It should read, “As a result of the federal infrastructure bill, there will be no fare hikes”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s just a poorly constructed sentence.

It should read, “As a result of the federal infrastructure bill, there will be no fare hikes”

OP here - that's how I read it originally. I see now how others think they were saying 'There could have been fare hikes tied to the Infrastructure bill but we averted that'. But no - its definitely 'We're getting money for the MTA from infrastructure therefore the public will not have to close the funding gap with higher prices'.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would there be fare hikes due to the infrastructure legislation? I don't get it.

I believe the implication is that will WMATA still hike fares with the potential funding from the new legislation?

WMATA is going to need to do something in the near future with declining ridership and deferred maintenance. Usually, WMATA threatens the local governments with shutting down. Recently, HQ2 dumped some cash into WMATA for their new stop in Crystal City with WMATA seeing future revenue at the new stop. But teleworking threatens to make WMATA even more unprofitable as businesses won't be subsidizing travel anymore. So what to do? The deferred maintenance won't keep waiting. WMATA also has to keep making pension payments.

The Silver Line opens up in Spring 2022 - Summer 2022 so there's that factor. But beyond that its just a question of will ridership go up in general in 2022 with RTW?

It slow-going but approaching normal numbers in New York. They're back to about 55% of their ridership levels and climbing.

MTA Announces New Pandemic-Era Ridership Records Set on NYCT Subway, LIRR, Metro-North, Paratransit and SI Railway

Subway ridership topped 3.3 million riders for the first time in the pandemic at 3,359,115 on Oct. 28 (rolling over the previous record set the day before by 60,000 riders) and exceeded 3.2 million on three of the last five weekdays, notably Oct. 22 through 28.

Prior to the pandemic, average weekday ridership totals routinely exceeded 5.5 million in the subway system.

https://new.mta.info/press-release/mta-announces-new-pandemic-era-ridership-records-set-nyct-subway-lirr-metro-north

The problem is that WMATA was already losing money at full ridership levels prior to Covid.