Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, September 23, 1995                   TAG: 9509250038
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Medium

D.C. RAIL FACING HURDLES AS FINAL PHASE BEGINS

But financial roadblocks lie ahead that could dash dreams of tunneling beyond existing suburban routes and, instead, force deep reductions in current services.

The new construction will extend the Green Line to five new stations in the District of Columbia and Prince George's County, Md. It marks the final stage of expansion under the original Metrorail route plan, approved in 1969.

``Our focus for the last 20 years has been on the completion of the 103-mile system, and we're doing that now,'' said Lawrence Reuter, general manager of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. ``But ... we're looking at further penetration out into the suburbs.''

Metro is studying the possibility of extending rail service to Largo, Md., and to Washington-Dulles International Airport in Virginia. A decision on future stations could come by the spring of 1996, Reuter said.

But several hurdles, including decreased ridership and shrinking budgets, must be cleared before any expansion is approved, Reuter said.

In the mid-1980s, Metro had an average of 8 percent increase in passengers per year. The rate of growth has dropped to 1 percent annually.

That decline is mostly the result of dwindling resources, officials said. Of the estimated 500,000 people that board Metro trains per day, about 38 percent, or 190,000 passengers, are federal employees, said Cheryl Johnson, a Metro spokeswoman. Metro officials expect that number to drop considerably with anticipated federal and municipal job cuts in the Washington region.

``Somebody has to pick up the costs for this. The money has to come from somewhere,'' said Cleatus Barnett, a transit authority board member representing Montgomery County, Md. ``We may have no choice then but to ask the local governments to pick up these costs.''

But board Chairman Kirk Wineland, the Prince George's County, Md., representative, said he doesn't think local governments would pay any more for services than they do now. For fiscal year 1996, which began in July, local governments contributed more than $458 million in subsidies for Metrobus and Metrorail services.

Wineland and Barnett also said they do not see another increase in fares as an option. Fares increased 10 cents per ride last summer.

``We have been told that the fares are at a level right now that's almost as high as they can go without being a point of diminishing return,'' Barnett said.

If revenue doesn't increase, then costs will have to be cut, Barnett and Wineland said.