Funding Metro for a Change
March 2005

by Chris Carney

In the District, everyone knows how crucial the Metro system is. Metro brings us to work, gets customers to our businesses and provides a decent alternative to gridlock on our streets. Members of the Sierra Club’s D.C. Chapter know that for over 30 years Metro has been vital to improving our local air quality by taking cars off the roads and protecting our dwindling open space by fostering intelligent development around Metro stations.

After all these years, Metro’s trains, buses, tracks and stations are starting to show their age, even as ridership continues to grow. At a time when we should be looking for Metro’s next expansion projects–such as building the Purple Line and putting rail on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge–Metro’s ability to continue to provide existing core services is being questioned instead.

Unlike other transit systems of its size, Metro has no dedicated source of funding. Every year, the transit authority must ask the jurisdictions it serves for the resources to keep the trains and buses moving. After several lean years, Metro is facing huge shortfalls for its capital and operating budgets. A recently convened blue ribbon panel to study the issue is now calling on public officials and the federal government to make dedicated funding a top priority.

D.C. Sierra Club activists played a major role in winning last year’s fight for the $1.5 billion Metro Matters emergency funding package: now they will be leading a fight for dedicated funding for Metro. They will also be calling for a renewed commitment to building the Purple Line, but dedicated funding must come first. In the months ahead, the D.C. Chapter will be gearing up a grassroots campaign to build demand for Metro funding. Please sign up to volunteer in this important campaign by contacting Chris Carney.

• Metro Funding fact sheet [link to separate page] (attached as separate file)
• Testimony to D.C. Council on Metro funding [link to separate page] (attached as separate file)
• D.C. Council Considers Stable Metro Funding [link to separate page] (attached as separate file)
• Metro funding outreach efforts [link to separate page]

In May, 2005, D.C. Sierra Club activists kicked off a grassroots campaign to build support for a new, stable funding source for the Metrobus and Metrorail system – for more buses and rail cars, and better and more frequent service.

On Saturday, May 7, eleven of the D.C. Chapters’ finest met in the basement of the Southeast Branch Public Library. Over coffee and breakfast they pored over maps, gathered materials, and set out clipboards in hand to talk to Capitol Hill residents. Two hours later they regrouped, having knocked on over 500 doors. The results - most residents we found home were happy to hear someone was working to get better Metro service, and two thirds of them took action on the spot to support Metro funding!

This is a great start, and we’ll continue to do more talking: on doorsteps, at Metro Stations, and at community festivals and meetings. Please join us!

To get involved, please contact Chris Carney at 202-237-0754 or visit www.sierraclub.org/dc/sprawl.

• Metro Matters article