How the Funds are Used
Data shown above represent the 2011 annual portion of a two-year biennial budget and are indicative of annual program expenditures.
About Metro's Operating Expenses
The bulk of Metro’s operating budget provides for the delivery of 3.8 million hours of transit service. Expenditures included in the Bus & Facilities portion of the budget include wages and benefits for approximately 2,800 operators and other staff including dispatchers, supervisors, trainers, on-road support providers, and Transit Control Center coordinators. This portion of the budget also provides for maintaining more than 1,300 buses in safe, reliable and clean condition as well as more than 570 support vehicles, about 9,600 bus stops and 1,670 shelters, park-and-ride lots, the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, seven transit bases, and other facilities. This portion of the budget also provides for the purchase of diesel fuel — an essential item subject to unexpected changes in price. Metro uses more than 10 million gallons of diesel fuel annually.
Other Transportation Services. Metro delivers more than fixed-route bus service. Other Transportation Services include Access service for people with disabilities who cannot use regular buses, dial-a-ride transit (DART), and the vanpool and rideshare program.
The Customer Services and Service Development budget provides for fare tickets and passes (including ORCA), timetables, signs, the Customer Information Office, Metro's website, marketing programs and other services. It also includes Metro's work with local communities to design new and revised transit services, schedules and passenger facilities.
The King County Services and Overhead budget is for expenses that Metro transfers to other county government divisions for central services and facilities.
The Administration and Management budget supports the oversight of Metro operations as a whole as well as human resources, information technology, and budget and financial management functions.
Safety and Security supports the services that the Metro Transit Police provide to customers, operators and other Metro employees. This category also supports the Transit Safety group, which provides programs to assure the safe operation of vehicles, a safe and healthy environment for employees, and compliance with regulations.
The data shown above represent the 2010 and 2011 amounts from the six-year budget adopted as part of the six-year capital program (2010-2015).
About Metro's Capital Expenses
Capital program funds are used to provide facilities, vehicles and systems needed for the transit system. As part of the nine-point plan to balance the 2010-2011 budget, some elements of the capital program — such as bus purchases and new bus shelters — were reduced. The capital program currently is focused on replacing existing infrastructure, RapidRide projects, completion of projects that are underway, and new projects that are receiving additional funding from grants or service partners.
Metro's capital expenses also include money set aside in the "Future Projects" category to pay for identified upcoming capital projects or to pay the expected bills for projects that are underway.