Norton, Ranking Member of Highways and Transit Subcommittee, to Host Roundtable on Metro
The roundtable is open to the public and the media.
WASHINGTON, DC – The office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today announced that the Congresswoman, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, will hold a roundtable discussion on issues facing the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) on Wednesday, January 22, 2013, at 6:00 p.m., at One Judiciary Square (441 4th St. NW), in the Old Council Chambers on the first floor. The roundtable discussion will help Norton in her new role on the Subcommittee, which will be writing a surface transportation reauthorization bill this year, and will be an opportunity for dialogue and discussion among some of the major stakeholders. The participants will be Richard Sarles, General Manager and CEO of WMATA; Klara Baryshev, Chair of the Tri-State Oversight Committee; Jackie L. Jeter, President of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689; and David Alpert, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington.
"Because I am working for a surface transportation bill of several years this time, I am very interested in the longer term issues facing Metro and similar systems in the U.S.," said Norton. "We need to bring fresh eyes to D.C.'s 50-year-old transit and bus system, as it undergoes the current maintenance transformation, to envision what is needed to sustain a system already experiencing pressures from population growth in the city and region."
Among the issues the discussion will focus on are progress and timeframes concerning the transformation Metro is now undergoing, rider stability and methods for calculating and ensuring ridership, future financing for the system, the fare vs. subsidy ratio, the effect of federal and non-federal funding on capital improvement needs, the challenges WMATA faces with Metrobus and MetroAccess, and the effect, if any, of WMATA ridership on funding of local transit operations, such as the Circulator.
Published: January 17, 2014