Is Donald Trump Going To Cripple The DC Metro?

WASHINGTON, DC — Bad news for anyone who relies on an already struggling Metro system: Donald Trump is reportedly considering a policy that would involve major cuts in federal funding for the Metro rail system.

A policy document drafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation and reportedly under consideration by the president includes a provision that would eliminate subsidies for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. That would involve eliminating $153 million in fiscal 2017.

"Congress has been directly subsidizing the WMATA, Washington, DC's local transit authority, for decades," the document reads. "Even with billions in federal subsidies, the low-performing agency (named the nation's worst transit agency by the Cato Institute's Randal O'Toole) has been plagued by increasingly poor service and financial instability."

The document claims that WMATA is getting spoiled on its federal subsidies and therefore hasn't gotten the necessary motivation to control costs, optimize service routes or set "proper priorities" for maintenance and updates, and that the situation is only getting worse even as fewer people ride Metro.

The report points out that Metro itself acknowledged that it was struggling to provide good service for its riders, and that bad service, combined with safety concerns, has had a big negative effect on ridership.

The document blames federal subsidies for hindering Metro's incentives to "react to market signals" and deal with these concerns.

"Congress should eliminate subsidies to the WMATA, furthering market incentives to turn the WMATA into a more effective transit agency," it adds.

Image via WMATA