Metro Board approves $5-billion, six-year capital spending plan

Washington, D.C., Metro's Board of Directors approved a $5-billion, six-year capital spending plan June 24 as part of its FY2011 capital budget, which was made possible as a result of increased contributions from the jurisdictions that fund Metro, federal stimulus dollars provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and dedicated federal and local matching funds provided by the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008. 



The first year of the
plan represents $1 billion in spending, the largest amount Metro has spent in
one year since the construction of the original Metrorail system. 

The capital
budget focuses on safety and maintaining the state of good repair of Metro’s
trains, buses, infrastructure and facilities. Projects address the need to
replace, upgrade or rehabilitate old or outdated vehicles, facilities, track
and customer amenities. 


"We have allocated funds
in the capital budget to be spent to continue to rebuild much of Metro’s
infrastructure, which is critically important to improving safety and service
reliability," said Peter Benjamin, chairman of Metro’s Board of Directors. "The
cornerstone of the program includes the replacement of Metro’s oldest rail
cars, the 1000 series cars, which addresses a recommendation by the National
Transportation Safety Board. Metro also will introduce new buses and
MetroAccess vehicles."



The multi-year capital
agreement "marks a transition from the Metro Matters funding agreement and what
is essential is that we came to an agreement with greater accountability and
more effective project management," said Catherine Hudgins, vice chairperson of
the Metro Board and chairperson of its Finance and Administration Committee. 

Other
critical projects in the capital budget include rehabilitating elevators and
escalators, upgrading fare equipment and upgrading power systems in order to
accommodate more eight-car trains.

Over the next six years,
Metro will also replace and rehabilitate old bus garages; portions of the
Metrorail system between Dupont Circle and Silver Spring and between Ronald
Reagan Washington National Airport and Stadium-Armory Metrorail stations;
upgrade track, maintenance equipment and operations support software and
equipment.