Metro $22M Short
‘Moving Momentarily’
courtesy of ‘Ghost_Bear’
No surprise in that headline. Last night’s finance committee meeting had Carol Kissal, WMATA’s CFO, telling the board that if there is no upswing in ridership by the end of the year, that $22.4 million budget gap could get bigger. Her estimate so far is based on July and August ridership levels.
Interestingly, Kissal blamed ridership decline on higher unemployment, lower gas prices and the June Red Line crash. Maybe so, but those are “dodge” excuses, really. What about abysmal customer service, long rail delays on OTHER lines, a creepily-high incidental death rate, non-explanatory e-alerts, bus drivers hitting people and a really, REALLY bad PR image at the moment?
And more unsurprisingly, GM John Catoe “has a plan.” Of course he does. He’s John-freaking-Catoe. What the man says, goes. Even if he doesn’t tell everyone else!
Seriously though, looks like Metro’s threatening fare hikes next year, unless we all suck it up and ride.
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5 Responses to “Metro $22M Short”
October 9th, 2009 at 11:22 am
*sigh* On the one hand, they need to make money, I know. And on the other hand, it seems like after the crap we’ve dealt with this year from Metro, over and over, across the whole system, we really shouldn’t be rewarded by paying MORE to do it all again next year.
October 9th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Higher unemployment has nothing to do with it. Mass transit ridership is at an all time hight despite unemployment. It is no secret why Metro ridership is dropping and it’s ridiculous for the CFO to even remotely think otherwise. Accountability has no place at WMATA.
In other news…the name of that picture is awesome.
November 15th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
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December 9th, 2009 at 9:02 am
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December 23rd, 2009 at 9:14 am
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