Hello,
Nice to see members of the Regime gathered to celebrate yet another challenge to the Metrorail system they want to spend billions of dedicated tax dollars to preserve. Anyone actually believe former Governor McAuliffe is going to ride Metrorail to downtown DC next year? Nope, he's going to be chauffered from his McLean mansion to meet other VIPs like Muriel Bowser via I-66 Express Lanes to help concoct another deal where people who don't, won't, or can't use Metrorail will bail out WMATA.
Reality check: Metrorail was designed 50 years ago as a two track system with no express capability to serve a medium-density DC and low-density suburbs. Metrorail came with a number of design and construction deficiencies (like escalators and water intrusion) that took decades to fix. About 20 years ago Metrorail's infrastructure was allowed to deteriorate, to the point where life-threatening safety issues were ignored. About the same time the Region's so-called "Progressive" elected officials who served on WMATA's Board of Directors began massive gentrification of the working class and middle class out of their jurisdictions, to be replaced by Smart Growth upscale urbanization with plenty of parking under the expensive mixed-use buildings.
WMATA's Board members and their colleagues in local jurisdictions simultaneously began the transportation charade known as the "Car Free Diet" which has evolved into a transportation nightmare where more motor vehicles generate more vehicle trips, whether from Uber, Lyft, Express Lanes, Car2Go, Zip Car, massive parking garages, increased student drop-offs, more vehicles per household, and the near-complete gentrification of the middle class out of DC and adjacent urbanized suburbs.
Can't fail to mention the proliferation of bicycles and free range bicyclists (who also own one or more motor vehicles). Then there are the connector buses, like ART, that parallel Metrorail.
So, why be surprised that Metrorail lost riders? Why tax people who don't, won't and can't ride Metrorail to impress Amazon (among other large corporations DC, Arlington, and other localities want to locate or relocate in the region)?
Twenty years of an ever-growing transportation mess. Enough.
Cindy
