A plan to upgrade Metro’s service and long-term sustainability by establishing dedicated funding for the transit system won backing Monday afternoon (Nov. 17) from two key panels.
The boards of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) each formally endorsed the funding plan laid out in late October by the DMV Moves Task Force at a joint meeting.
There were a few abstentions but no votes against the proposal from either body.
The action marks “a pivotal point for our region” in transportation planning, said Valerie Santos, chair of the WMATA board of directors.
“Our long-term prosperity depends on having a strong, resilient and dependable Metro,” she said.
Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk, who chairs the COG board, echoed that sentiment.
“This is a huge step [that] will serve our communities for years to come,” he said.
The nonbinding proposal sets two main goals: improving capital projects funding for Metrorail — starting with an additional $460 million in fiscal year 2028 — while developing pathways to give buses priority over other vehicular traffic in congested corridors of the region’s roadways.
Specifics on both areas are only partially fleshed out.
“There’s still a lot of work to do,” said Nick Donohue, a former Virginia state transportation official who provided services to the task force.
Also part of the effort is a plan to coordinate efforts between the region’s 14 different transit operators, standardizing fare policies and uniform reporting of data.
The package adopted on Nov. 17 gives leaders in Virginia, Maryland and D.C. the flexibility to determine how to provide their share of the funding, which for fiscal year 2028 is estimated to be:
- Virginia: $136 million
- Maryland: $152 million
- D.C.: $173 million
Some of that funding will be used to seek out additional federal transit dollars, something the region hasn’t been able to pursue because it did not have the money for the mandatory local matching funds.
“Without the local match, we cannot get hundreds of millions of dollars back into the system,” said WMATA general manager Randy Clarke.
The plan also would allow WMATA to use some of the funding to back bond sales for longer-term initiatives.
Representatives from a number of outside advocacy groups were largely positive on the plan.
“All in all, this has been a good process, a step forward,” said Jason Stanford, president of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance.
Though not without some concerns, Stanford said having better guarantees of strong transit funding would prove “critical to the quality of life” across the region.
Bill Pugh, representing the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said the transit advocacy organization also “strongly” supports the plan for the region to commit additional funding.
“We’ve seen some good proposals for new funding sources,” he said.
The DMV Moves task force was cochaired by D.C. City Council member Charles Allen (representing COG) and Metro first vice president Paul Smedberg (representing WMATA).
The results of the process are designed to produce “a reliable, safe and more seamless” transit experience for riders, Allen said.
The effort builds on recent successes, said David Snyder, a Falls Church City Council member and chair of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, which indicated its support for the DMV Moves recommendations earlier this month.
“We have re-achieved our status as a world-class transit system, and, frankly, I don’t want to lose that,” he said.
Metro was named the country’s outstanding public transit agency of the year by the American Public Transportation Association in September — its first time securing the group’s top award since 1997.
The $460 million in proposed additional funding doesn’t include an estimated $60 million to $80 million deemed necessary to maintain and enhance the local bus networks operated by the likes of Fairfax Connector, City of Fairfax CUE, Arlington Transit and Alexandria’s DASH.
The package also doesn’t include funding to support any expansion of the Metrorail system.
“We’ve got to get the base right and make sure the existing system is performing at a high level,” Clarke said. “Then we can start thinking about where there’s other gaps.”
Clarke said the vote to support the package ends one phase of the effort, and begins another.
“The job is not done. The job in many ways is just starting,” he said, pointing to the need for state government buy-in for the additional funding.
Clarke said the transit agency’s collaboration with COG went smoothly over the 18 months that the DMV Moves panel was in existence.
“It’s another example of our region — when we want to work together, we really can,” he said.
As he did on the DMV Moves Task Force, D.C. City Council Chair Phil Mendelson abstained from the Nov. 17 vote. He had continuing concerns about what he believes is an excessive amount of funding expected of his city compared to that of Virginia and Maryland.
“I can’t say yes to $173 million,” Mendelson said. “I realize that every jurisdiction is struggling for money, [but] the District is the weakest. We would pay considerably more under this plan.”
To date, the D.C. City Council is the only one of the three jurisdictions to implement funding for Metro improvements. The City Council added 1% to the sales tax, beginning next October at the start of fiscal year 2027, to raise about $135 million or $140 million in annual revenue.
Virginia legislators earlier convened a task force to look at funding options. That panel, chaired by Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-39), adopted a proposal on Nov. 6 calling for up to $400 million in new revenue that would support transit — Metro, Virginia Railway Express and local bus services — across Northern Virginia, while providing transit funding for other parts of the commonwealth as well.
Any funding packages need the approval of the General Assembly and the signature of incoming Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) to be enacted.
A number of Maryland representatives on the COG and WMATA panels also voiced concerns about the amount of funding to be required of their state government. Unlike Virginia, localities in Maryland have no responsibility for transportation or transit funding, which is all concentrated at the state level.
COG executive director Clark Mercer said local leaders would have to make the case to state legislators.
“Folks around this table have to prioritize if this is something worth fighting for,” he said. “It’s a prioritization game in Annapolis and Richmond.”
Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn, a board member of both COG and WMATA, said Fairfax County intends to do its part to make sure state lawmakers provide the needed funding.
“It is going to depend on all of us to be advocates,” he said. “You’re going to be seeing a lot of me in Richmond this January and February.”
The choice between success and failure is a stark one, said Tracy Hadden Loh, a D.C. representative on the WMATA board.
“We can be proactive, or we can be reactive and keep digging ourselves deeper in the hole,” she said.
