A ridership revival has led to a $20 million increase in projected revenue from Metro passengers in the coming fiscal year.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) released new budget forecasts last week that now anticipate $464 million in passenger revenue for fiscal year 2026, which begins July 1.
The revenue forecast for the subsequent fiscal year of 2027 has increased from projections shared last fall by $29 million to $482 million.
When it comes to ridership, Metro is now anticipating a total of 257 million trips in the current fiscal year, 270 million in FY 2026 and 275 million in FY 2027, split about evenly between Metrobus and Metrorail. That would continue a trend of 45 consecutive months of ridership growth, Metro officials say.
“We are excited to see ridership returning and revenue increasing, which allows Metro to prudently invest in services and infrastructure where most needed,” WMATA Board Chair Valerie Santos said in a statement accompanying the new projections.
Metrobus ridership has exceeded pre-pandemic levels, but rail ridership continues to lag. The rail passenger deficit may be helped by government and private sector workers returning to the office — willingly or not — nearly five years after Covid sent many white-collar employees to a work-from-home environment.
Last week, WMATA reported that the morning rush-hour on Monday and Tuesday (Feb. 24-25) were Metrorail’s busiest since the pandemic.
Revenue from the increased ridership, however, will only put a slight dent in the subsidies required to operate the D.C. region’s primary transit system.
Anticipated operating expenses for FY 2026 remain unchanged at $2.63 billion, although the higher fare revenue will enable Metro leaders to reduce the flow of funds from its preventive-maintenance capital budget to its operating budget.
With the new projections, Virginia’s share of subsidizing Metro operations in FY 2026 is expected to be $495 million, down $1 million from earlier estimates. The projected Virginia subsidy for FY 2027 is unchanged at $510 million.
Ridership revenue stood at $666 million for the fiscal year running between July 2018 and June 2019. It dropped to $485 million the following year, as a result of the pandemic’s arrival in March 2020, and cratered to just $102 million for the fiscal year between July 2020 to June 2021 before starting to rebound.
