FY2017 PROPOSED BUDGET

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Proposed Fiscal Year 2017 Budget
Chapter 2
are, has been consistently below target, particularly since the opening of the Silver Line. Riders
are experiencing more unpredictable travel times, and must budget more time to reach their
destination.
Metrobus
The proposed Metrobus passenger revenue budget for FY2017 is $158.3 million, a decrease of
$7.2 million or 4.4 percent over the approved FY2016 budget. Metrobus ridership and revenue
performance in the years following the 2009-2010 recession was generally strong, as passengers
responded positively to the combination of low fares and high quality service (e.g., new bus fleet,
improved reliability and on-time performance). Growth in demand for Metrobus has been
particularly strong in certain corridors such as 14 th Street, 16 th Street, and Georgia Avenue in the
District of Columbia, where adding capacity and improving travel time have been major initiatives.
In addition, the Kids Ride Free program for District of Columbia students continues to be
successful, carrying approximately 23,000 student rides on an average weekday.
However, bus ridership did dip in the fourth quarter FY2015, and this has continued into FY2016.
This decline has a number of potential causes:
• There is some evidence that rail’s challenges are spilling over to bus. Morning bus-to-rail
transfers were down ten percent in FY2016-Q1, which is twice the loss of overall bus
ridership, and the heaviest losses were concentrated at Wiehle, New Carrollton, Vienna,
and Pentagon, indicating that bus may be losing trips from commuters reacting to the
challenges on rail.
• Average bus speeds have steadily declined in recent years and continue to drop, which
impacts the quality of service. Many factors are contributing to this trend, particularly
increased traffic congestion, but there are opportunities to improve the customer
experience, including investments in Traffic Signal Priority (TSP) and changes to speed
passenger loading.
• Finally, ridership is also trending downward at other bus operators across the region,
indicating some correlation to broader socioeconomic conditions rather than being specific
to Metro. WMATA continues to work with our partner jurisdictions to understand and
address the causes of these declines.
As a result of these factors, the FY2017 projection includes a three percent reduction in projected
bus ridership and revenue from approved FY2016 levels.
MetroAccess
As the population continues to age, and disability rates continue to rise, the utilization of
MetroAccess is also expected to grow. MetroAccess forecasted passenger revenue for FY2017 is
$10.0 million, an increase of $1.5 million over the FY2016 proposed budget (though only an
increase of $0.9 million over FY2015 actual revenue). MetroAccess registrations and ridership are
projected to increase in FY2017, continuing the current trend dating back to FY2014.
Approximately 60 percent of MetroAccess trips are provided in Montgomery and Prince George’s
Counties in Maryland, with another 14 percent of trips in the combined Virginia jurisdictions, and
the remainder in the District of Columbia. Trip volumes are relatively low in Virginia due to the
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