Metro general manager Randy Clarke said the transit agency is “at an eight-year crime low, and we’re actually on pace to the lowest crime year we’ve ever had.”
Clarke addressed the Metro board of directors Thursday, a few days after Metro released its FY2025 Annual Service Excellence Report, which showed crime across the system fell by 43% between June 2024 and June 2025.
The biggest drop was in car thefts at stations, which were down nearly 60%. Larceny cases fell by 33%, while robbery and assault each dropped by more than 20%. This continues a downward trend that began in 2023, with overall crime now down 50% compared to two years ago.
“We clearly want zero crime, society wants zero crime,” Clarke said, saying protecting passengers, employees, and property will be ongoing priorities. “The job is never going to be done.”
Clarke said improved safety against crime, “Quite frankly, its probably the indicators of why our ridership has come back so much at our system, is because people feel safe on the system.”
Meanwhile, ridership is on the rise, partially fueled by the return-to-office push in the D.C. area. Metro recorded 264 million trips over the past fiscal year, which is a 9% increase.
What can be done to improve on-time performance
The board discussed findings of recent dips in on-time performance for both Metrorail and Metrobus.
According to Tom Webster, Metro’s chief planning and performance officer, “There is a limit to our 1970s technology, and all the human factors that go into providing service,” in addition to “customer human factors as they ride our system.”
He told the board, “The next big leap in on-time performance in rail is reinvestment in Metro’s signaling system, to replace the legacy, 1970s technology — that is going to take a substantial capital investment by the region.”
On the bus side, Webster said the biggest fundamental challenge is congestion on area roads.
“The next level would be investment in infrastructure and technology to prioritize bus on roadways, particularly where we have high ridership, high frequency, high capacity service, that is competing with single-occupancy vehicles, and parked cars that slow our buses down,” Webster said.
Asked for an example of intermediate steps Metro has taken to improve bus performance, Webster cited its partnership in the District’s 11th St NW Bus Priority project, from Pennsylvania Avenue to L Street.
The painted bus lanes reduce the need of buses to merge out of and into traffic, while picking up riders.
“It’s a tactical approach that does speed up buses,” said Webster.
Other infrastructure and technology improvements would involve transit signal priority — technology that synchronizes a region’s traffic signals, to give priority to mass transit vehicles: “It allows buses to move faster through congested areas and intersections that tend to get bogged down in traffic.”