WASHINGTON — Washington Metro officials were notified by the U.S. Department of Justice that $3.4 million in federal funds would be returned to the transit authority to cover expenses associated with providing Metro service for the Inauguration of President Barack Obama.
Metro had already received $475,000 in reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, so Metro’s total federal reimbursement was for $3.9 million.
“The work of the regional Congressional delegation – Senators Mikulski, Cardin, Webb, and Warner and Representatives Hoyer, Moran, Norton, Wolf, Van Hollen, Edwards and Connolly — to include funding for Inaugural expenses in the FY2009 appropriations bill made this grant award possible,” said Metro General Manager John Catoe. “The eyes of the world were upon us for the Inauguration, and when the historic Inauguration took place, it was one of this agency’s finest hours.”
On Inauguration Day, Metro provided about 1,120,000 rail trips, 423,000 bus trips and 1,721 MetroAccess trips for a total of 1,544,721 trips, the highest ridership day ever in the transit authority’s history.
