Every day, 10.5M residents move across our region through a system of trains, buses, highways, tunnels and bridges to reach the jobs, businesses and schools that drive our region’s growth. These essential connections unite our region, power our collective $1.1T economy and shape our global competitiveness.
We convened the 2024 Capital Region Transportation Forum with the Greater Washington Board of Trade, U.S. Senator Mark Warner, transportation agency executives and leaders from DC, Maryland and Virginia to outline the steps needed to keep the region at the forefront of innovation.
There were key insights that revealed progress and urgency:
🔹Sen. Warner called for engagement on critical areas: 1. Increase awareness of the productivity gains generated by public-private collaboration our workforce expertise; and 2. Improve regional cooperation to streamline regulations and efficiency to seek federal investments; and 3. Support the return to office of federal workers.
🔹Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA)’s Randy Clarke highlighted Metro’s integral role, citing 242M customer trips in 2024, 43 consecutive months of ridership growth and generation of $9.4B for our regional economy. Despite these gains, Metro is facing an immediate need for additional resources to maintain a state of good repair. He warned that without predictable, long-term funding indexed to inflation, Metro’s ability to modernize its infrastructure is at risk.
🔹Partnership CEO Kathy Etemad Hollinger emphasized urgent priorities from our Blueprint for Regional Mobility 5-Year Refresh informed by feedback from 100+ stakeholders, including securing sustainable Metro funding, restoring DC as a world-class rail hub and leaning into transit-oriented development (TOD).
🔹During the DMVMoves panel, Charles Allen, Paul Smedberg, Jack McDougle, Bryan Hill and Nicholas Donohue urged the business community to support development of a comprehensive plan to support continued growth for a regional transit system.
🔹Transportation Secs. W. Shep Miller III (Virginia Department of Transportation) and Paul Wiedefeld (Maryland Department of Transportation) and District Department of Transportation (DDOT) Dir. Sharon Kershbaum identified key infrastructure development needs to improve productivity and safety—like the Purple Line, Union Station Expansion Project and American Legion Memorial Bridge.
Advancing these infrastructure projects requires difficult decisions, candid conversations and sustained hard work from all stakeholders if we want to achieve our vision of a modern, accessible transit system that serves all our communities.
Special thanks to moderator NBC News 4’s Adam Tuss and our sponsors Transurban, HNTB, EXP, Northeast Maglev and WSP for making this event possible.
Join the conversation and comment below your vision for our region’s transportation future.
Watch the full recording: https://bit.ly/3CpDc8X