By Mira Varghese
The College Park City Council unanimously agreed during its March 9 meeting to send a letter to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) opposing its proposed budget cuts, which would close the College Park Metro Station and two bus lines.
According to budget documents from WMATA, its proposed budget for fiscal year 2022 includes closing the city’s metro station due to “low ridership,” as well as eliminating bus route 86 and shortening route 83, both of which run through the city.
Members of the College Park City Council expressed that the proposed changes, which would go into effect in January, 2022, could have negative impacts on the community.
Mayor Patrick Wojahn said that metro and bus lines’ ridership has been particularly low because of the pandemic and remote UMD classes. He stressed that this temporary situation could bounce back as University buildings open back up.
“We hope to see those bus lines become vibrant and heavily used once again … once in-person instruction returns to the university,” Wojahn said.
WMATA’s proposed changes to the College Park Metro and the two bus routes could have considerable impacts on University of Maryland students, many of whom rely on them as primary transportation for class, work or social outings.
Julián Pérez-García, a senior government and politics and Spanish double major, said that maintaining these forms of transportation are especially important under the current abnormal circumstances.
“It’s really important that there’s certain things … that should run, even in times of crisis, maybe even more important in times of crisis — and public transportation is definitely one of those,” he said.
While he said he does not use the Metro as much as he used to, mostly due to the pandemic, Pérez-García would regularly use it to visit Washington, D.C., whether for class assignments, internships or just to explore.
He also pointed out that UMD’s accessibility to the nation’s capital is an important factor in prospective students’ decision to attend the university.
“I remember when I came in 2017, they used the connection to D.C. and easy transportation in D.C. as a big selling point to the university. And I would imagine their ability to sell the university as being close to D.C. is going to really suffer if they don’t have public transit access,” Pérez-García said.
Despite the present virtual environment, Simon Molina Herrera, a junior international relations student, still uses the city’s public transportation often.
“Everything’s online, but I have to have events, sometimes other people invite me to places and, you know, it will just ruin plans,” he said. “Even travel purposes, because if I have to catch a flight, for example, you know, the Metro line, the green line, the general line that is in our line in College Park, goes directly to Ronald Reagan Airport.”
Molina Herrera said that if budget cuts must be made, new transportation options should be put in place.
“If they want to cut the budget on transportation, for example, they need to, first and foremost, create a new budget that is less expensive, and it could satisfy, or at least build new projects of transportation, you know, new ways of buses, new lines,” he said.
While students may be affected by WMATA’s proposed cuts, some College Park businesses said they might not be significantly impacted.
Simeon Alexander, assistant manager at The Bagel Place, said most of the business’ customers are local.
“We’re so reliant on the people who are immediately local, like the students at the university and the people like living around like the neighborhoods, that … losing the bus route wouldn’t really affect our business at least, not to my knowledge,” he said.
Randy Hyek, The Board and Brew’s beverage director, also said that most of the restaurant’s customers walk in or drive, but there are definitely people, such as college students or young professionals, that make use of public transportation to reach the business.
Nonetheless, he said the loss of transportation options would have great impacts on the greater College Park economy.
“I think public transportation is kind of an economic lifeblood for any city,” Hyek said. “For the most part, it’s only going to increase accessibility of people who can’t walk or drive into like downtown spaces and College Park.”
Featured image: Under WMATA’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2022, bus route 86 would be eliminated and bus route 83 would be shortened; both routes run through College Park. Photo by Mira Varghese.