Funds Sought to Hire More Drivers, Increase Service on In-Demand Routes

Metro wants to hire more bus drivers and supervisors to reduce crowding on heavily used routes, under a budget proposal to be presented to board members this week.

The proposal seeks funding for about 40 additional full-time bus drivers, 10 to 15 bus supervisors, more service on high-ridership routes and mandatory safety refresher training for drivers. Metro has about 2,400 bus drivers and 79 bus supervisors.

The spending plan, which is to be discussed at Thursday's budget committee meeting and must be voted on in June, has been under heavy scrutiny since Metro staff recommended a controversial fare increase in December to help close a budget gap for fiscal 2008, which begins July 1.

Since then, General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. has shelved a fare increase -- at least for next year -- and said the agency will find other ways to balance the budget without reducing service. Last week, Metro began laying off employees and eliminating positions as part of his plan to trim 220 jobs and cut expenses.

The additional resources for Metrobus are aimed at improving service and safety in a part of Metro's operations that has long been underfunded and overshadowed by Metrorail. Catoe, who has extensive bus experience in previous jobs, has said he wants to overhaul Metrobus.

One of his first actions since taking over as general manager in January was requiring safety refresher training for all bus drivers. In January and February, Metrobuses were involved in three accidents that killed four pedestrians.

Officials also want to shift some bus service from low-ridership routes to heavily used ones. Schedules for the busiest routes haven't been updated to reflect the increased traffic and number of passengers. As a result, some bus drivers "are speeding" to meet their schedules, Catoe said at D.C. Council hearing two weeks ago.

Adding more street supervisors might help with bus "bunching," the term for buses traveling in herds and disregarding the schedule.

To increase the applicant pool and fill driver vacancies faster, Catoe also has dropped the long-standing requirement that drivers start as part-timers. Hiring more drivers also would help reduce Metro's overtime spending. In fiscal 2006, 125 bus drivers and train operators received more than $100,000 in overtime pay, agency records show.

Officials are balancing the budget through layoffs and other measures, including an accounting change that allows $12 million from unused Farecards to be counted as revenue, and a one-time infusion of $40 million that Metro won in a court case after 17 years of litigation.

Metro's operating expenses are paid through three sources: passenger fares, revenue raised by the agency, including from advertising, and taxes in the District, Maryland and Virginia.

The budget gap arose in part from escalating costs, slowing ridership growth and management decisions made in previous years, such as not replenishing funds to pay injured workers and those who successfully sue the agency.

Catoe calls the proposed budget "fragile" because it relies heavily on one-time funding. There is also little cushion in the reserve fund "if something goes south," such as a drop in rail ridership, said Chuck Woodruff, Metro's chief financial officer.