Metro’s total shutdown Wednesday forced many people onto buses for the day.

But maybe that’s just the way things should be. All the time.

So say some transportation analysts anyway. They argue that Metro’s climactic failure is another sign that the bus–the lowly bus, so often seen as the clumsy and homely understudy to light or heavy rail–should once again play a starring role in mass transit.

An analyst from the right-leaning Maryland Public Policy Institute went so far as to suggest that Metro is dead, and it’s time to pull the plug in favor of bus rapid transit (BRT). But so did an analyst over at the left-leaning Brookings Institution, who suggested that rail – and maybe even buses too – should be scrapped for private sector solutions coming into widespread use, including ride-sharing (like Uber) and driverless vehicles.

“Why isn’t now the time to ask whether we should keep investing in this system?” asks Thomas A. Firey, a senior fellow at the Maryland Public Policy Institute. “Any reasonable metric shows it’s not a good form of transit compared to other ones. ”

If Firey had his way, he said he would close Metro and fill its tunnels with dirt.

Clifford Winston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, also thinks public subways and bus systems have been so mismanaged for so long, it’s probably time to find alternatives.

“Both urban bus and urban rail are socially undesirable in most cities–that is, their operating and capital subsidies exceed benefits to users,” Winston said.

Both argue that Metro represents the transit option of yesteryear, and that the vast capital investments and operating subsidies that governments must plow into fixed rail systems no longer make sense compared with the flexibility and relatively low cost of BRT or ride-sharing and other innovations. This is particularly true at a time when buses and cars are cleaner and more fuel-efficient than ever. How much carbon, rail skeptics ask, went into the atmosphere to build the underperforming Silver Line?

In this view, the love affair for Metro is a holdover from the days when monumental projects were equated with the public good, and the preference for rail over buses was driven at least partly by middle-class tastes and anxieties. A federally-funded study by the National BRT Institute of mass transit options in Los Angeles suggests buses have an image problem that’s affected more by intangibles, such as perceived comfort, than tangibles, such as their reliability moving people around. Those intangibles also depend at least in part on the “urban context” a bus network serves – that is, the communities it transits — and this can be affected by the perception that the buses travel through low-income neighborhoods, the study says. You find Ralph Cramden behind the wheel of a bus; you find Tom Cruise on a train.

In a paper published in the 2013 edition of the Journal of Economic Literature, Winston argued that the United States has almost always been in flux between public and private approaches to maintaining its transportation infrastructure. But the time has come to either overhaul government’s stewardship of public transit or allow the private sector more of a share, because the current system is riddled with inefficiency and inequality.

Despite the notion that Metro is egalitarian, for example, studies show the federal government is subsidizing rail systems for riders who already have above-average incomes, compared to those who use the bus. The average income of a bus rider is $42,550 (in 2008 dollars); for rail, it’s $85,100. The 2016 median salary for Washington is $69,235, according to the Census Bureau.

Federal employees alone receive, free of charge, up to $255 a month to ride Metro. That’s the maximum a pretax subsidy anyone can receive; for people outside the federal government, it’s deducted from his or her pretax wages. For a federal employee, that’s the equivalent of a $3,060 annual bonus for them and $15 million a year for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. (The average pay for a federal employee is about $79,000, according to the Office of Personnel Management.)

Low-income commuters, or those who make less than $15,000, use rail for only 9.6 percent of their work trips – probably because transit reaches less than one third of metro-area jobs, Winston found.
“Fortunately, innovations in the private sector, including Uber in the short run and autonomous vehicles in the medium run, can improve urban transportation, and will likely eliminate public transit’s drain on the public purse and its patience,” Winston said.

Firey spelled out his reasoning along these lines in a policy paper that he admits sounds “radical.”

In his view, Metro is a dinosaur, built when 1960s urban planners and engineers still harked back to the hundred-year-old success of the London and New York subway systems and believed that electricity – thanks to things like nuclear power, among other things – would be the cheapest source of energy in the future.

Come ride with me: Washington D.C.’s Metro in the 1970s and ’80s
View Photos A look back at D.C.’s Metro to commemorate the Silver Line opening.
People are still habituated to the idea that trains can carry more people and at greater cost efficiency than buses when, he argues, the opposite is true.

This is partially because the real cost of rail is hidden from Metro users, whose fares cover less than half of the system’s operating and maintenance expenses and almost nothing of its capital costs, he said. Plus, now that Metro’s critical infrastructure is sputtering toward the end of its 40-year functional lifespan—as has become more and more obvious to the public –the cost of rebuilding the system will be daunting.

“WMATA officials can try to nurse it along, but that will be costly and riders will face many more disruptions like today,” Firey wrote Wednesday. “Ultimately, costly and environmentally damaging reconstruction will be needed.”

Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, thinks they’re both wrong.

Metro is the primary reason for the revitalization of the District and its inner suburbs, from Silver Spring to Bethesda in Maryland all the way over to to Arlington and now Tysons Corner in Virginia, Schwartz said. If anything, Metro’s troubles stem from a lack of concerted government attention and funding, Schwartz said. He agreed that the emergency shutdown this week demonstrates why the city should expand its reliance on dedicated bus lanes, but as a supplement to Metro, not a substitute.
“As our region grows, we need an efficient surface transportation network with dedicated right-of-ways to the maximum extent possible,” Schwartz said in an email. “It’s important for reaching areas Metrorail doesn’t go and is also an important [complement] to Metrorail.”

A network of dedicated bus lanes might even allow WMATA to shut down an entire Metro system for repairs. But Schwartz also said buses could never take Metro’s place, and the emergency shutdown Wednesday has now given people a taste of what it would be like if there were no subway system.

In other words, Metro isn’t dead. It just looked like it on Wednesday.

Photo courtesy of Jessica Gresko. Click here to read the original story.

Yesterday’s unprecedented closure of the full D.C. regional Metrorail system to examine and make critical fixes to the system certainly disrupted the routines of many thousands in the region. While the move was affirmed by every responsible public official, even seasoned commuters who’ve grown dependent on the system have had to concede that there can be no serious complaining about fixes done in the name of safety.

But the one-day interruption could be raising more questions than it answers. Can WMATA’s new general manager Paul Wiedefeld say with confidence that the corrections made in that one day were really sufficient to fix everything wrong or potentially dangerous that should require attention? Concerns may actually arise in the face of this action that it was merely a band aid, or even simply cosmetic.

It cannot be stressed too much that the public must demand the WMATA leadership not try to cover up for the stingy U.S. Congress that needs to bear the burden for keeping the system going. Underfunding on infrastructure in this nation is a scandal, whether it is in Flint, Michigan or anywhere else. The idea of burdening local jurisdictions with the cost of maintaining vital components of major infrastructure projects is also a joke. Passing the buck like that is almost like not funding at all.

Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, said this about yesterday’s closure of Metro: “It took years for Metrorail to end up in this situation, where maintenance underfunding left us with the problems we see today. Clearly, we have a ways to go to repair Metro’s aging systems….We hope that the ongoing challenges facing Metro will prompt our elected leaders to work together to provide the funding necessary to fix longstanding maintenance and rehabilitation problems. Failure is not an option.”

Underfunding has not only led to an aging system sorely in need of rehabilitation and maintenance, it has also led to the general under-performance of the system from the start. The system has been held back terribly by underinvestment, especially to be able to provide the necessary frequency and extension of hours of operation to make it a genuine alternative for many, many more in the region than use it, or rarely use it, now.

The biggest difference between the Metrorail here and the subway system in New York, where it really works for a population five times larger than here, has nothing to do with the amount of graffiti on its station or rail car walls. It has to do with the fact that the system is extremely passenger-centric, offering a frequency of trains and expanded hours of operation to make it indispensable to the average New Yorker.

The problem with WMATA and other mass transit options and plans around here is that they pull their punches badly and thereby present a shadow of what the region really needs. No one-day patchwork fixes can solve this endemic problem.

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WASHINGTON, DC — In response to the WMATA decision to close Metrorail on Wednesday, March 16 for an emergency equipment investigation, Coalition for Smarter Growth Executive Director released the following statement: “It took years for Metrorail to end up in this situation, where maintenance underfunding left us with the problems we see today. Clearly, we have a ways to go to repair Metro’s aging systems. The new General Manager Paul Wiedefeld has shown he is willing to take the tough and bold steps necessary to focus the staff on making the critical fixes the system needs, and to keep the system safe — in this case on an emergency basis.

Updated 7 p.m.

WMATA has closed the entire Metrorail system Wednesday to conduct emergency inspections of more than 600 electrical cable connections, the transit agency said.

The commuter rail system will be closed in D.C., Maryland and Virginia from midnight Tuesday through 5 a.m. Thursday. The Office of Personnel Management said federal agencies will be open Wednesday but employeeshave the option for unscheduled leave or telework.

Metro’s general manager, Paul Wiedefeld, announced the shutdown at a news conference Tuesday afternoon. Officials said it was the first time Metro would close all of its railways for any reason other than a weather emergency.

A fire on the tracks near the McPherson Square station led to major delays throughout the system Monday. The incident was traced to a faulty “jumper cable,” the same kind of electrical component that is believed to have malfunctioned last year and caused a train to fill with smoke near L’Enfant Plaza, killing one passenger and sickening dozens.

National Transportation Safety Board investigatorsidentified the need for the safety fix last year, and last June Metro’s top engineer Rob Troup cautioned that repairs requiring track shutdowns during daytime hourswould be necessary.

Wiedefeld said the threat to life is low in this case, but he was taking no chances with the safety of Metro riders and staff.

The ripple effects

Almost anyone who needs to navigate D.C. on a weekday will be affected by the decision, and there will be far more cars on the road than usual. Authorities were urging commuters to have patience. In a nod to the increased usage of roads, WMATA said parking would be free at all Metro-owned lots and garages Wednesday.

D.C. Public Schools announced they would still be open Wednesday, and were working with Metro to offer additional bus service. Tardies and absences will be excused, the school district said. As of Tuesday evening, a handful of the city’s public charter schools had canceled classes. About 87,000 students attend some form of public school in D.C.

The D.C. city government also will be open.

The VRE rail service announced it will continue to operate normal service Wednesday. The Maryland Transportation Authority said all three MARC rail lines would be operating at full service with “limited extra capacity.” Bus users should be prepared for delays because of heavy traffic, MTA said.

One type of vehicle will definitely not be on the city’s roads: The District will not send out street sweepersWednesday.

Tough decision, strong reactions

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a written statement that the shutdown highlights the need for “a permanent Metro safety office with real teeth.” The secretary has been outspoken in pushing for the transit agency’s jurisdictions to create such an entity. “While this shutdown is inconvenient, they are doing the right thing by putting the safety of their passengers and workers first,” Foxx said.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat whose district includes thousands of federal workers, called Metro’s decision “a gut punch to the hundreds of thousands of commuters who depend on the system.” In an an interview with WAMU 88.5 News, he called it a “sad, sad day.”

An advocacy group said it was hopeful the Metro closure will encourage elected officials to support more public funding for mass transit system maintenance. The Coalition for Smarter Growth, which says its mission is to promote pedestrian- and transit-friendly communities, said in a news release that Wednesday’s unprecedented shutdown is the result of maintenance underfunding through the years.

The group credited Metro leadership for taking the “tough and bold steps” to shut the system down for an inspection.

The shutdown is likely to be a boon for taxi and ridesharing companies. Roy Spooner, general manager of Yellow Cab of D.C., said he’s calling in extra staff to help take phone calls. He sent word to his drivers to get ready for Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photo courtesy of Martin Di Caro. Click here to read the original story.

Metro passengers and local lawmakers were trying to shake off their shock and plan alternative commutes for Wednesday morning after authorities announced that the region’s sprawling rail system would close at midnight and remain completely shuttered for 24 hours.

The Office of Personnel Management said that federal government employees could telework to avoid what could be crippling traffic jams in the nation’s capital, but several local school systems, including D.C. Public Schools, announced they would remain open Wednesday, posing a challenge for students and teachers who depend on Metro to get to class.

Metro’s unprecedented closure immediately drew complaints and concern. Riders asked why Metro hadn’t announced the shutdown earlier in the day Tuesday to give passengers more time to plan for a midweek standstill, and some said they are worried about what the episode says about the system’s overall safety.

Many in the Washington region were left with a simple quandary: How would they get to where they need to go on Wednesday without Metro, the linchpin in a public transit system that connects the District and its traffic-choked Maryland and Virginia suburbs?

“It’s going to affect our workday for sure,” said Henrik Sundqvist, who lives with his wife in Arlington, Va. Because the two have one car between them and work in opposite ends of the region — he in Dunn Loring in Fairfax County and she in Anacostia in the District — he said he has no idea how they would get to work.

The closure, which will allow Metro to inspect the lines amid concerns about the system’s electrical cables, might disrupt hundreds of thousands of lives Wednesday, but officials said it was in the interest of not putting anyone at risk on the rails.

Former U.S. transportation secretary Ray LaHood praised Metro’s leadership, including General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld, for putting safety first.

“When you discover a potential threat to safety, you must do everything in your power to act,” LaHood said. “While the shutdown is obviously disruptive to the daily commutes of many Washingtonians, it is far better to be inconvenienced than to risk another life-threatening incident.”

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) also said he supported Wiedefeld’s decision to “take whatever steps are necessary to keep Virginians safe.”

But he and many other local, state and federal lawmakers said that the shutdown should serve as a wake-up call that Metro is a troubled agency in need of serious reforms.

“It is deeply disturbing that the system is in such a precarious state that it must be entirely and abruptly shut down during the middle of a workweek,” Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) said in a statement. “This is a stark demonstration of a total agency failure.”

In a statement, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) called the closure “an astonishing admission that safety has not been the priority it needs to be at WMATA,” the Washington Area Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Rep. Gerry E. Connolly (D-Va.) said the announcement, which he learned of from a note passed to him on the House floor, was a “gut punch” that raises many questions.

“Was there no alternative? Is this, moving forward, how we’re going to deal with major repairs when something happens?” Connolly said. “Safety has to come first, but this must be an extreme situation to justify shutting down the entire system. And when you shut down Metro, as my colleagues here are going to learn tomorrow, you essentially shut down the federal government.”

Lawmakers from outside the Washington region took notice, as well. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), a noted transit advocate, said he was “deeply concerned” by the shutdown of a system that serves members of Congress, their staff members and the federal government at large.

“It’s a very serious signal,” Blumenauer said. “We’ve known that there have been problems for a whole host of reasons. . . . But I am hopeful that everybody in Congress pays attention to that, because we all live here a third of the time. This transit system is the transit system for our employees, for the federal workforce, and it’s in desperate need of everybody’s attention.”

Were his hometown of Portland to shut down its light-rail system on a weekday, he said, “it would have extraordinarily serious consequences.”

Jim Dinegar, president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, said he is concerned that the shutdown will have a chilling effect on tourism in the short and the long term. Metro’s inspections on Wednesday could turn up new problems that further shake public confidence in the troubled rail system, he said. “They won’t find good things,” he said. “They’ll find risks.”

Many Metro advocates and passengers said the shutdown is a sign of the need for greater public investment in the system.

“We will see on Wednesday just how important Metro is to our region,” said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth. “We hope that the ongoing chal­lenges facing Metro will prompt our elected leaders to work together to provide the funding necessary to fix long-standing maintenance and rehabilitation problems.”

During Tuesday’s evening commute, passengers were just beginning to grapple with how important Metro is to them on a daily basis — and in particular how important it would have been to them Wednesday.

Janice Williams, a house cleaner from Hyattsville, Md., said she will have to take three buses to get to work Wednesday. She was frustrated but said she is glad officials erred on the side of safety.

“It sucks that it has to happen, but you don’t want to worry about people getting hurt,” Williams said, sitting on a concrete bench in the Metro Center station. “There could be worse things.”

Michael Laurion, 26, who is in town from Dallas for an accounting conference in Arlington, said he had planned to take the Orange Line on Wednesday morning from his downtown hotel.

Now the only thing he knows for certain is that he will be late.

He said he still loves the District and is even thinking of moving here. But the fire that paralyzed three Metro lines on Monday and now the 24-hour shutdown have given him pause about the city’s public transit.

“It makes me wonder how safe, I guess, it really is,” Laurion said.

Others received the news with resignation, having been disappointed by Metro many times before.

Heather Bodenhamer, 24, said she has experienced her fair share of delays and poor service and smoke on the tracks during the past five years. She used to travel from Rockville, Md., to Clarendon in Arlington for work, and because of frequent Metro troubles, she had to leave her home two or three hours early to ensure she would arrive at work on time.

“There were so many times I was late to work,” she said. “It’s sad how unreliable it can be. You never know what’s going to happen.”

Heidi Schriefer said she considers herself one of the lucky ones. She has several options for commuting to work and won’t be terribly thrown off the by the shutdown. Instead, she plans to take a bus from her home in Old Town Alexandria to her office in downtown Washington.

“A lot of other people won’t be able to make it in,” she said. “It’s just irritating that they announced it last minute, on a weekday, and it will affect the whole system.”

That, she said, is the Metro trifecta.

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