The American Recovery Plan’s passage means Metro can avoid the service cuts and layoffs it called for in its 2022 fiscal year budget, the transportation agency said in a press release Wednesday. The legislation provides $1.4 billion for transportation in the Washington region. Metro won’t get all of that, but it’s optimistic that it will get enough, board of directors chair Paul Smedberg says in the release.
Metro proposed drastic service cuts late last year, including the loss of 2,400 jobs and the closure of 19 Metrorail stations. It would have eliminated weekend rail service as well. The transportation agency has been battered by the pandemic.
In the release, Metro GM and CEO Paul Wiedefeld thanked lawmakers from the region, who he said fought “tirelessly for transit workers and riders.” US Representative Don Beyer on Wednesday called his vote for the bill the “most consequential vote I have ever cast.”
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
