Even over in Germany, at the International Transport Forum — an annual conference on transportation policy and innovation — D.C.’s Metrorail is being cited as the way not to run a mass-transit system. Washington Post reporter Martine Powers nicely captures the nuances that transportation demand plays in Metro’s equation.
“Poor governance and poor attention to the long-term investment . . . are really starting to hamper the sustainability of the Metro in Washington,” said Richard Anderson, director of the Railway and Transport Strategy Center at the Imperial College London.
Anderson’s research center highlighted Metro’s struggles in a new interim report co-sponsored by the World Bank about the successes and challenges of some of the world’s major subways, based on benchmark statistics provided by 34 transit systems, as well as in-person visits to 10 transit agencies — including the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
Asked by a reporter about Metro’s most recent round of fare increases, and whether the move could spark a “death spiral” — a cycle in which higher fares drive down ridership, depleting funds available to help fix the system and win back riders — Anderson said that’s not the usual course of affairs.
“The evidence we’ve got says that demand for public transport is far more responsive to quality and capacity than to fares. So, if you increase fares by 10 percent, say, then you might lose 3 percent of passengers. If you increase capacity by 10 percent, then you get 5 percent more passengers,” Anderson said.
Still, he said, fares are only one part of the puzzle. “Long-term dependable funding,” such as a dedicated revenue stream from taxes, is necessary to Metro’s survival, he said.