Metro officials gave a brief preview of the agency’s budget that will soon be released for fiscal year 2013-14 to the Board of Director’s Planning Committee on Wednesday afternoon. A few highlights that may interest Source readers:
•The budget is balanced without a fare increase.
•The budget proposes an increase in Orange Line service to relieve mid-day crowding.
•The budget proposes additional late night service for the Expo and Gold lines.
•The budget proposes improved headways for weekend service on all Metro Rail lines. CEO Art Leahy said that some shorter trains will be used; the idea is to make service more frequent and convenient to grow ridership. Longer trains then could be used as the new rail cars that Metro ordered last year are delivered.
•The budget proposes $20 million to address Blue Line safety issues.
•The budget proposes $261 million for deferred maintenance of Metro buses, trains and facilities. The budget also includes a new policy to ensure that maintenance is not deferred in the future.
•The budget proposes systemwide camera/video enhancements for improved security on the Metro system.
•Staff said that the proposed overall budget will be $4.9 billion for 2013-14.
•The Metro Board of Directors is scheduled to consider and vote on the budget in late May. There will be a public hearing on May 15. We’ll have more details on The Source after the draft budget is publicly released.
Categories: Inside Metro
when does the current fiscal year end and the new one begin?
Hi Jose,
The current fiscal year ends on June 30, 2013. FY14 starts on July 1, 2013 and runs through next June. You can find Metro’s budget here: http://www.metro.net/about/financebudget/financial-information/#cafr
Anna Chen
The Source, Writer
@NYExile: and it shows why the Orange line must be upgraded to light-rail as soon as possible.
Capacity issues are good problems to have, in a way. It shows strong demand for Metro transportation solutions.
@AD
The interior of the bus is too narrow for bikes unless some seats are removed… which would cause even more capacity problems.
[…] Highlights of Metro’s Proposed 2013-2014 Budget (The Source) […]
I’m curious how adding more orange buses will work. I thought that orange buses were maxing out signal prioritization and adding more buses would cause bunching. If bunching/platooning is the new operating strategy to try and get closer to rail capacity, then maybe we can start putting bikes in the buses like we can with trains.
Its great that there is no fare increase, but what about adding new express lines? We need more frequent late night service on Lines 40, 111, Metro Green and Silver Lines. Line 81 does not 24 hrs.
Metro will never be for bringing in Starbucks or any businesses into their stations. They think it will cause the place to become more messy than it is today.
Yet it already is a total mess as it is today because they have a lack of funds to do any clean up on a frequent basis. You’d think they would have the brains to add in businesses so that it can help them earn extra revenue to hire janitors to clean up the place every night, but they don’t.
I don’t think you want to ensure that maintenance is deferred in the future?
Metro should propose a budget to start rebuilding the some of their stations as major profit centers so that Metro can start seeking additional revenue. It shouldn’t take millions of dollars to add in a coffee stand so that Metro could rent it out to Starbucks or something, right?
A $10,000 investment in building a retail space at a station that Metro could then rent out at $500 per month, Metro would be making profit in 20 months!
Multiply by that the across all of their stations, they can be earning some serious money that could be used to help pay for Metro operations.
Start thinking like that! These types of thinking are the most fundamental knowledge in the business world!
I like items 1 – 5.
that’s great that about the potential shorters headways during weekend. seems like a smart idea to encourage more people to use the Metro if it’s more convenient.