Opinion | It’s about time Metro started taking action to stop fare jumpers

Great solution, activists, to make transit free so as not to inconvenience this particular pack of thieves. Good luck getting local taxpayers to support such a surefire recipe for the system to go to seed.

And while Metro grapples with this issue, it might want to encourage those who designed the low fare gates to seek employment elsewhere. Having to spend $35 million to fix this boneheaded design is just another unforced error.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is in the news again. Desperate for more money, some or much of which might not materialize, its future is problematic. Transit history is replete with positive feedback episodes of declining ridership, poorer service, declining ridership, etc.

I worked in rail mass transit planning in Boston when the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority was doubling in size. Metro’s situation is quite different. It is showing its age and must do extensive repair work. The system is centrally oriented, but the employment, housing, shopping and entertainment in its service areas continue to decentralize. Trips are long — and the trackage will allow only very limited express operation. And it remains to be seen to what extent employers will continue to require workers to assemble at a fixed location multiple times each week; national opinion polling of employees has not revealed great enthusiasm for a return to the eight-hour, five-day workweek in the office. The more this holds true, the less eager politicians and voters will be to pony up the kind of money that Metro will be requesting.

To back up their request for more funding, Metro is discussing the threat of longer headways and wait times, along with shortened hours of operation and a degraded transit environment. Things could get ugly.