According to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority website, the Metro generated $617 million in revenue in fiscal 2006, spent $1,049 million and required an operating subsidy of $432 million. Those raw numbers understate the real cost of operating the system, however. If Metro is allowing the system to depreciate, it is generating bigger losses than the raw operating numbers let on.
The Washington Post provides an example of the slow-motion depreciation that appears to be taking place. Citing the “escalating” cost of repairs, Metro management is looking at replacing 23 escalators with conventional stairs at 15 stations. Writes Lena H. Sun:
Nonfunctioning escalators trigger more complaints from Metro customers than almost any other problem. Metro has so many escalators because the subway was built so deep beneath swampy Washington. In some places, stairs aren’t an option because all available space is devoted to escalators.
Metro, with 86 stations and average weekday ridership of about 720,000, has 588 escalators and 267 elevators. In contrast, the London Underground, which serves 275 stations and carries more than 3 million passengers a day, has 412 escalators and 112 elevators.
At any given moment, 40 to 45 of Metro’s escalators and about six elevators are typically broken or scheduled for maintenance.
The Metro is a critical transportation asset for the Washington Metro area. There may be a case for expanding the system to Dulles airport and other locations in Virginia. But Virginians will want to be assured that the system isn’t slowly disintegrating before signing up for billions in construction charges and multi-millions in ongoing maintenance costs.
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