METRO
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THE REGION
Metro Looking at Ways to Ease Crowding
Proposals to ease subway crowding and reduce underused bus routes are on the Metro board's agenda today.
Leaders of the region's transit authority are scheduled to look into possible changes to midday and weekend rail service. Ridership is up 19 percent during off-peak times and 24 percent on weekends, often resulting in passengers being packed into subways while equipment sits idle.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority proposes using six-car trains for nine months during fiscal 2007 instead of the current six months, at a cost of $2.2 million. By fiscal 2008, the longer trains would run year-round.
Metro is also considering running regular weekday train and bus service on four federal holidays, when many private-sector employees go to work: Veterans Day, Columbus Day, Presidents' Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Metro said rail ridership last Veterans Day was 70 percent of what it is on a regular weekday. On buses, it was 64 percent.
The budget committee will also look at saving $2.4 million by cutting nearly a dozen underused bus route and curtailing late-night service on almost three dozen. Some post-midnight runs carry a single passenger, Metro said.
Area Federal Workers Donate $57 Million
Area federal employees pledged $57.1 million through the Combined Federal Campaign during the fall fundraising drive, a 2.1 percent increase from the previous year, the CFC of the National Capital Area announced yesterday. Forty-seven percent of the federal workforce in the Washington area participated, the CFC said.
The number of participants rose slightly, to 167,500, while the average gift fell slightly, to $341 from $347 in 2004. The CFC of the National Capital Area is the nation's largest CFC. More than 300 CFCs are conducted across the country each fall.
The Combined Federal Campaign of Central Maryland said yesterday that it raised $6 million, a 5.3 percent increase from the previous year. The results vaulted the Central Maryland over the San Diego CFC to make it the nation's third-largest CFC.
MARYLAND
Wineries Say Ruling Threatens Existence
Maryland's 22 wineries can't sell directly to restaurants and liquor stores, the state comptroller's office has ruled, prompting complaints that the decision could force some out of business.
"It's a decision that could spell the end of the farm wine industry," said Kevin Atticks, executive director of the Maryland Wineries Association.
