Are Trinidad’s buses going to be eliminated?

Short answer: If President Biden can pass his $1.9 trillion Covid stimulus bill, which seems likely, Metro will probably not cut buses service to Trinidad next year.

Long answer: The coronavirus pandemic has put WMATA in a serious budget crunch. Our transit agency received significant help in the December stimulus package, but it looks like that will only take us through to the end of this year. Without more help, a budget gap of $171 million means that WMATA may have to lay off 2,500 workers and cut service significantly next year.

How significantly? Metro’s plan for 2022 involves cutting bus service by half and scaling back Metrorail service to two trains an hour (or four on the red line), closing two hours earlier, and shuttering 22 stations.

What does this mean for Trinidad? There are many buses that serve our area, and some of them, like the busy crosstown X2, would just end service earlier (midnight as opposed to 2am). But crucially, the D2, D4 and D8 buses are not in the top half of most ridden buses and are slated for elimination. Compare the two maps below, with regular service and then proposed service in 2022:

It is not clear if WMATA considered any other metrics besides ridership when choosing which routes to eliminate. If factors such as income, diversity, population density or vehicle ownership were considered, perhaps different routes would have been chosen. As Andrew Grinberg has written here, “45.3% [of] ANC 5D households don’t own a car — a much higher share than D.C. as a whole (36.7%). We need to make sure our neighbors who don’t drive have options for getting to work, school and anywhere they need to go.” Here’s what the Trinidad Neighborhood Association, discussed last week, wrote in 2012 when the D3 was up for elimination.

How likely is this “doomsday scenario?” In the December package, US public transit agencies were allocated a total of $14 billion, and WMATA’s share of that was $610 million. In the stimulus bill currently being debated in congress, $20 billion is allocated to transit, but it’s unclear how much of that would be for our buses and trains here. The Senate is taking up the bill this week, and Democrats seemingly have the ability to pass the bill.

So why scare everyone with, and ask for comments on, a plan that’s unlikely to actually happen? WMATA is required to plan for the budget they currently project having, and they must seek comment on planned changes to service. Also, seeing all the dramatic changes together helps reinforce the urgency and necessity of getting extra financial support during this crisis.

There is a public Zoom meeting next Monday at 6pm to hear testimony on the proposed changes. You can view the meeting wmata.com and at youtube.com/MetroForward, and during the meeting you will be able to call in to a phone number and give testimony. You can also fill out the survey here, or call (844) 468-5748 to leave comments.

Image courtesy of Tony Webster through Creative Commons