WASHINGTON — Washington Metro Area Transit Authority officials will present its budget on Thursday with a $750 million deficit looming. That proposal would include salary and wage freezes for all employees, the elimination of nearly half of Metrobus lines and a 20% increase in fares and parking rates.
WUSA9 spoke to commuters who depend on Metro every single day. Ben Clemons commutes from Silver Spring to Northwest D.C. and doesn't have a car.
"It would probably add about 30 minutes to my morning routine. I would have to find alternate routes," he said.
Cinzia Cirillo is the interim director at the Maryland Transportation Institute. She says cutting public transportation services would hurt the entire region, especially in areas where low income populations live.
"They need to travel by transit, using buses or Metro and they are the ones who have schedule constraints," she explained, "they don't have a flexible job, they need to be in places at a certain time, they cannot be late. So if we cut services out of the peak hours, or in the morning, or at night, these people will suffer the consequences."
But is there a solution? Cirillo says there isn't one correct answer to encompass all of the issues, but she encourages WMATA officials need to really think about inspiring more people to use public transportation - which would in turn, increase revenue.
"Adding more people to use it and have people not use it just once, but in a consistent way," she said, "use it for work, to go to the gym, to a restaurant. It's not just people who go to work who should use the transit, it should be for anybody at anytime."
WMATA officials say they've asked D.C., Maryland and Virginia to contribute to the $750 million deficit, and they say it they don't, those cut would go into effect on July 1.