MetroNow Dispatch 12.2023
This month is our December Debrief – where we take a look back at transit over the year and look ahead to the next one.
Before we get it into it: The ScuttleBus
We wish you a Merry ScuttleBus! Here are MetroNow’s top transit picks before year’s end:
⌛ 187 days until the transit cliff: FY 2025 budget starts July 1, 2024.
🧾 Metro proposes its FY2025 budget: Unaddressed inflationary pressures, lagging ridership, and as yet uncommitted public investment, would bring massive layoffs and service cuts.
🏛️ First version of Virginia’s budget hits store shelves: Gov. Youngkin’s proposed FY 2025-26 budget would create a process to allow the state to increase its contributions to WMATA, but does not include additional funding.
💰 Maryland pledges $150M for Metro: Despite significant cuts in its proposed transportation budget, the Moore-Miler Administration intends to protect Metro - see MetroNow’s special alert here.
🏟️ What a new arena might mean for Metro, traffic: Transportation concerns are top of mind among Alexandrians after news that the Wizards, Capitals agreed to move to Potomac Yard from Gallery Place
🌉 Feds award $729M for a new Long Bridge: The funds will help alleviate one of the biggest passenger rail bottlenecks along the East Coast.
🎄Downtown Red Line stations to remain closed past Christmas: Metro’s two-week preventative maintenance project between Dupont Circle and Gallery Place, part of the oldest, original part of the Metrorail system, has left many downtown businesses with cold feelings.
🚲 Capital Bikeshare is just running up the score at this point!: CaBi recorded back-to-back months with record-breaking ridership numbers
This year really flew by!
2023 in Review
Let’s take a quick trip down Candy Cane memory lane and recap regional transit developments and what MetroNow has been focused on this year.
All About that Bus
We kicked off the year previewing and sharing the MetroNow Coalition’s Washington Area Bus Transformation Project Progress Report. 2023 was another banner year for the bus in the region, with Alexandria’s DASH setting records, Metrobus ridership recovering to near-pre-pandemic levels, and WMATA launching 24/7 bus service on some of its busiest routes. WMATA’s Better Bus Network Redesign would offer improved higher-frequency service, but will take longer to implement given potential cuts to WMATA services in FY2025. MetroNow remains committed to supporting the important role the bus plays in our regional transit network.
All Metro, All the Time
But the bus isn’t our only sweetheart. In good news, we celebrated the opening of the 98th Metro station at Potomac Yard and the millionth rider at the new Dulles Metro station. In not so sweet news, the extent to which historic inflationary pressures, reduced post-pandemic ridership, and long-standing structural funding deficiencies wreaking havoc on Metro’s operating budget became all too clear. Staring down a budget deficit as large as $750M, regional leaders got to work.
The MetroNow Coalition was grateful to see leadership from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission in their respective efforts to independently assess WMATA’s situation and offer practical solutions, especially heading into the 2024 legislative sessions in Maryland and Virginia.
As the year closes out, the region is digesting and reacting to WMATA’s FY2025 budget and the implications for economic growth and competitiveness. Q1 2024 is shaping up to be very busy, indeed, and we look forward to continuing to work with you all to find solutions to Metro’s challenges and advance better transit.
Thank You – and Happy Holidays
To you – our MetroNow Dispatch readers and subscribers – thank you for your continued support throughout 2023. We couldn’t have done it without you, and we are so excited to share with you all that 2024 has in store for the region.
We appreciate you and hope to catch you on a bus or Metro soon!
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The MetroNow Coalition is made up of regional leaders from the business, non-profit, and advocacy communities who believe that transit is designed to bring us together —at work, school, and play. Today, we believe our collective advocacy for better transit for the Washington DC region is more important than ever.
We launched the MetroNow Dispatch to bring residents, leaders, and transit agencies together to think about how we can make better transit today, during the pandemic, and “tomorrow,” as we look beyond recovery to how we can build a more equitable, sustainable, and accessible transportation system for our region.