Commuters exit the Federal Center SW Metro station after service was suspended following a non-passenger train derailment in August. (Amanda Voisard/For the Washington Post)
Metro approved a deal Thursday with a major beer company that will allow New Year’s Eve revelers, and everyone else, to use the transit system for free immediately after midnight in the first hours of 2016.
Under the arrangement, approved unanimously by Metro’s governing board, the MillerCoors brewing company will pay the transit agency $165,000 and will be allowed to advertise its free-ride sponsorship.
Metro said no subway fares will be collected from midnight until the rail system closes at 3 a.m. Jan. 1 Bus passengers, depending on which routes they use, will be allowed to ride for free from midnight until 4 or 5 a.m., Metro said.
The promotion is called “Miller Lite Free Rides.”
General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld, who became the agency’s chief executive last month, said the deal with MillerCoors is an example of the sort of “innovation” he favors and will continue to push during his tenure.
“I want to try [new] things,” he said. “The reality is, let’s figure out ways we can work in partnership with private companies, nonprofits, whatever.”
As the transit board met for the last time in 2015 before adjourning for the holidays, members also approved a new safety-related program for Metrobus and gave the go-ahead for the testing of a new monthly pass for subway riders.
In the deal with MillerCoors, Metro will not be reimbursed by the beer company for the exact amount of fares that go uncollected. Instead, the $165,000 flat payment “is based upon rail and bus ridership averaged for the same time period in 2013 and 2014,” Metro’s customer-relations staff told the board in a written proposal.
“MillerCoors has been promoting its ‘responsible commuting’ campaign on New Year’s Eve by providing free rides in more than 20 cities for decades,” the proposal said. “In other markets, including Chicago, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Dallas and Milwaukee, MillerCoors has provided more than 2.4 million safe rides on holidays.”
Metro’s promotional partnership with the brewing company comes a month after the transit board, struggling to boost revenue, voted to scrap a 20-year-old policy against alcohol ads in the transit system.
[Metro looks for revenue in alcohol advertising]
As for the new monthly subway pass, Metro said a three-to-six-month pilot program probably will begin in late winter.
The agency currently has three types of rail passes: a 28-day unlimited pass costing $237; a one-week unlimited pass for $59.25; and a one-week “short trip” pass, costing $36, that allows unlimited travel on trips with a fare of $3.60 or less.
For the moment, Metro is referring to the new pass as a monthly “name your own price” ticket. If the plan is eventually adopted, commuters will be able to calculate what they pay monthly in subway fares, then buy passes for that much travel at a discount.
“Based on market research, staff believes this new pass product would be appealing to many current and new riders,” according to a written proposal that said the pilot program is intended “to gauge preliminary market response and work through the technical requirements for implementing this new product in the existing fare system.”
Wiedefeld, in his desire for innovation, strongly endorsed the idea.
“It’s used at other transit properties around the country,” he said. “Our pass system, I just don’t think it reflects what the customer needs. . . . The issue here is, let’s just try it, see if it works. If it does, we keep going. If it doesn’t, let’s try something else. . . . We’re just not on the cutting edge of these things. So let’s be on the cutting edge.”
The board also approved an expansion of its “close-call transit safety reporting system,” in which Metro employees “who see or experience unsafe conditions” can file a confidential report under the assurance that their identities will be kept secret. The program was instituted for the subway in 2013 and now will be expanded to the bus system.
[Metro train operators tend to run a lot of red lights.]
The program is run in partnership with the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics, part of the Transportation Department.
Metro operations officials “receive information about the safety actions resulting from the Close Call Reports via a quarterly newsletter that is distributed by both management and the union and is posted on a special [federal] website set up for the program,” Metro’s staff told the board in a written presentation.