Metro GM: Agency Losing Millions Daily Amid Pandemic

WI Web Staff July 29, 2020

0 234 Less than a minute

Metro riders exit a Red Line train at the Gallery Place-Chinatown station in D.C. on Nov. 2. (William J. Ford/The Washington Informer) — **FILE** Metro riders exit a Red Line train at the Gallery Place-Chinatown station in D.C. on Nov. 2, 2018. (William J. Ford/The Washington Informer)

Metro has lost millions in revenue daily as a result of shrinking ridership during the coronavirus pandemic and major budget cuts are on the way without more federal assistance, the transit agency’s general manager said.

Paul Wiedefeld, speaking Tuesday at a press conference sponsored by the American Public Transportation Association, said Metrorail has suffered about $2 million in lost revenue every weekday since March, WTOP reported.

The agency chief said federal funding from the CARES Act — the coronavirus aid package signed into law by President Trump in March — has been used up and the system is on the verge of sharper cutbacks.

Metro is funded by the surrounding jurisdictions of D.C., Maryland and Virginia, as well as the federal government.

“The reality is that, without additional federal funds, we are left with some very difficult choices to deal with a looming financial crisis that run counter to the economic recovery we all want,” Wiedefeld said, WTOP reported.