For Immediate Release: Thursday, April 20, 2017
Montgomery Council President Berliner’s
statement on WMATA’S Recovery Plan
ROCKVILLE, Md., April 20, 2017—Montgomery County Council President Roger Berliner made the following statement on the recovery plan announced by Paul Wiedefeld, general manager of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA, or Metro):
We knew this moment would come because of years of deferred maintenance and the growing costs of properly maintaining an aging Metro system. That is why as Chairman of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments last year, I tried to lay the groundwork for a successful campaign to secure dedicated funding from Virginia, Maryland and the District in 2018.
Now, Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld has laid out what will be required to fix the safety and reliability problems that have plagued the system in recent years. It is up to us as elected officials in the region to deliver the additional $500 million per year Metro needs through a dedicated funding source and to leave behind the year-to-year budgeting cycle that, in part, has allowed the system to fall behind and lose 100,000 daily riders over the last decade. Metro is the only major transit system in the country not to have dedicated funding.
I will be working with local, state and federal elected officials over the next year to identify the best source for dedicated revenue.
Metro cannot be allowed to fail. Our County and our entire region depends on its viability for our prosperity, quality of life and environmental sustainability.
# # # Release ID: 17-135