Metro officials say they may have to close up to 22 stations next year if the transit agency does not receive another round of federal funding.
Metro is facing a large budget shortfall because of the decrease in ridership caused by the pandemic. Ridership is down about 90%.
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The stations that potentially face closure are:
- Archives
- Arlington Cemetery
- Cheverly
- Clarendon
- Cleveland Park
- College Park-U of Maryland
- East Falls Church
- Eisenhower Avenue
- Federal Center SW
- Federal Triangle
- Greensboro
- Grosvenor-Strathmore
- Innovation Center
- Judiciary Square
- Loudoun Gateway
- McLean
- Morgan Blvd
- Mt. Vernon Squares
- Reston Town Center
- Smithsonian
- Van Dorn Street
- Virginia Square-GMU
One local rider whose station would close said he thinks more people will start to use Metro again once more people are vaccinated. Metro’s own data suggests that the more vaccines are available, the more riders they'll have.
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The vaccinated population in D.C. may be overestimated in this map because some non-residents who work in D.C. are included in the totals.
If approved, Metro stands to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in this new round of federal stimulus money, which would help reduce cuts. If the agency doesn’t receive more federal funding, cuts and layoffs will be necessary beginning in January 2022, Metro says.
Services will run at about 80% of pre-pandemic levels from July to December. Then, Metro would need to reduce its services to about 30% of pre-pandemic levels from January to June 2022 to have a balanced budget.
