Exclusive: Metro CEO Randy Clarke's message to Trump
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Metro's Gold Line proposal would redraw D.C.'s transportation map. Map courtesy of WMATA and photo from Doug Kapustin/For The Washington Post via Getty Images
Randy Clarke sees Metro's future in the Gold Line: A zippy, dedicated bus route from Georgetown to the new Commanders stadium.
- And the transit system's general manager has a message for a powerful man who loves gold:
- "President Trump and the entire administration say they want to build," Clarke says, "and they want to build faster."
- "Metro wants to build stuff, and we want to build faster."
Why it matters: The Gold Line is more ambitious than just a bus lane. It tries to solve a new problem (stadium transit) and a very old problem (no Georgetown metro) — and fix K Street.
- In fact, at least three D.C. mayors have tried and failed at building an east-west connection, as witnessed with the H Street streetcar. To start, the Gold Line will link Union Station and RFK.
- And, Clarke tells me on the latest episode of the "Dream City Podcast," it'll be "a lot better than the streetcar ever was."
The big picture: There's a power vacuum right now in D.C. The mayor is a lame duck. The feds are downsizing. Downtown is adrift.
- Clarke has a rare, fleeting window to set the city's agenda. And he's more about realistic ideas (a fast bus that works) than waiting decades for the perfect rail line.
- If Clarke convinces the next mayor to fund Metro's bus lanes on congested K Street, Metro could help spur new investment in Washington's old office core.
Between the lines: Who knows if Trump will set his developer eyes on the Gold Line (the name appears to be a coincidence), but Clarke's leaning into diplomacy on many fronts.
- Clarke compliments Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's push to make Metro "clean and safe," as he courts lucrative federal grants for a big modernization project: automating the Red Line.
- "We'll be looking for hundreds of millions of dollars in partnership with [the Trump administration]," Clarke says.
Yes, but: Metro is catching flak this month, previewing friction ahead.
- First, the Washington Post editorial board argues Metro's dependence on regional funding is unsustainable, and that the agency needs cuts.
- Clarke disagrees, seeing Metro as an essential public good, and defends his staffing: "This idea that we have 3,000 extra employees is like one of the stupidest things I've ever heard," Clarke said on the podcast.
Last week, the Metro union "condemned" Clarke for beginning to require bus drivers to intervene with fare evaders, lest those disputes lead to assaults.
- It's on top of a bigger worry of the union, which is train automation leading to job losses.
- "I never said that we're doing automation to get rid of people," Clarke says. Expect more tensions ahead.
The latest: Fares are probably going up next year for inflation, Clarke says, three years after the last increase.
Zoom out: Clarke wants a more unified DMV.
- Case in point: Even though it's not his project, he says Maryland's Purple Line — connecting Bethesda to New Carrollton — will be added to the Metro map, which he hopes one day will also include the MARC and VRE lines.
"We need to be thinking about that way more," Clarke says.
- Trump's federal workforce cuts were a shock to the system: "It's going to force us to diversify our economy, be less reliant on the federal government, and maybe work closer as a region."
What's ahead: Clarke, 49, is on contract to run Metro through 2029.
- He's been talked about as a future Secretary of Transportation.
To which, he says: "If someone called you from a president and said, 'Would you be willing to serve your country at that type of role?' There's no way you wouldn't say, 'Let's have a conversation about that.'"
💠Town Talker is a column about money and power in Washington. Tell me who I should interview next: [email protected]