The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) presented a proposed balanced budget for fiscal year 2026. This budget shows the commitment made to financial sustainability, identifying cost savings, and building on financial accomplishments made in recent years.
WMATA’s Executive Vice President and CFO Yetunde Olumide presented the latest mid-year financial update to the board. Their ridership, revenue, and customer satisfaction numbers have continued to grow over the last two years.
Revenue was recorded at 16% above budgeted projections last quarter with increased paid rail ridership.
WMATA has been aggressively pursuing ways to reduce fare evasion recently, including utilizing modernized fare gates at rail stations, increasing enforcement, and an enhanced bus fare evasion campaign that underscores that fares pay for the service.
Total ridership reached 127 million trips for the quarter, 11% above budget and 8% higher than the same period last year.
WMATA ended 2024 with 92% customer satisfaction for Metrorail, 83% satisfaction for Metrobus, and 79% satisfaction for MetroAccess.
“Metro has been mindful of tight budgets and our need for long term funding sustainability and has aggressively sought to cut costs and find efficiencies wherever possible," said Matt Letourneau, Metro Board Finance and Capital Committee Chair.
Finding Savings
In recent years, WMATA has been identifying inefficiencies, freezing wages, consolidating call centers, reducing the use of consultants, optimizing its rail service, and more. With these efforts, WMATA has managed to find $500 million in savings.
In the new capital program, WMATA redesigned and standardized new bus shelters to save more than half the cost. WMATA has also reduced capital program administration costs by $175 million and IT support costs by nearly $17 million.
Balancing revenue growth and expense management is a focus for WMATA. The hope is to ensure sustainable operations while maintaining safe and reliable service for customers.
Enhancing Service
Several service enhancements have been proposed that would begin next July without any additional financial subsidy beyond what was previously agreed to with local jurisdictions.
One proposition is to send every other Yellow Line train to Greenbelt, splitting Sliver Line service between Downtown Largo and New Carrollton, while adding more Red and Silver line trains during peak rush periods to meet demand.
The Better Bus Network redesign, the first major redesign in 50 years, is also in the works. The redesign will introduce a “tap and go” fare system, allowing taps from credit and debit cards at fare gates and fare boxes.
The proposed budget also calls for extending weekend hours, opening the rail system one hour earlier on weekend mornings and closing one hour later during weekend late nights.
WMATA will continue to track and monitor ridership, revenue, and expenses and provide periodic updates to the board of directors.
