Every day is Earth Day at Metro: Quantifying Metro’s positive influence on the environment

As we celebrate Earth Day and Earth Month, we wanted to take this time to highlight Metro’s positive impact on our world.

Transit is essential to the National Capital Region’s sustainability and is a key part of the climate solution. Metro connects people to opportunity, helps to decrease traffic congestion, and supports healthy communities with less carbon pollution and cleaner air. 

"Riding transit is the sustainable choice and getting more people to take Metro is one of the most effective ways to support our planet,” said Metro General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Randy Clarke. “We’re working hard to provide high-quality transit service and as Metro’s ridership grows, so does our positive environmental impact, helping to support healthy communities.”

Metro is advancing initiatives to become even more efficient, including investments in clean energy and the transition to zero-emission vehicles.

"Metro’s focus on sustainability goes beyond industry leadership; it's about practical savings and carbon emissions reduction for cleaner air in our region," Clarke said. 

Metro is proud to observe Earth Day 2024 by celebrating its environmental performance over the past year.

Highlights

• Delivering substantial emissions reductions to the region: Last year, Metro prevented more than 78,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from entering the atmosphere. That’s how much carbon is absorbed by a forest about twice the size of Washington, D.C. or the emissions from about 200 million milesdriven by an average gasoline powered passenger vehicle.
• Launching battery-electric buses into service: Two 60-foot battery-electric buses began providing service on the W4 route from Anacostia to Deanwood. Through March 2024, the buses have traveled more than 12,000 miles. More electric buses are on the way this year and Metro plans to have a completely emissions-free bus fleet by 2042.
• Running on 35% clean electricity: Providing service powered by carbon-free electricity makes your ride even more sustainable and supports the growth of the clean energy industry.
• Featuring Metro’s Fleet of the Future:Nearly 47,000 visitors came to the Fleet of the Future Expo to get a sneak peek of Metro’s future vehicle fleets, including a mock-up of the new, modern 8000-series railcars that are targeted to go into service in 2027 and one of our new battery-electric buses. 
• Increasing transit affordability: Metro launched Metro Lift, an income-qualified reduced fare program, where qualified customers receive a 50% discount on any rail or bus trips. To date, 7,000 customers have taken more than 500,000 trips using Metro Lift across all 98 rail stations and 150 bus routes. Since launching last June, the average Metro Lift participant has saved more than $90. 
• LEED-ing the way: Metro is building cost-efficient, low-carbon buildings for the future that create healthier workspaces for our employees and ensure Metro is a good neighbor in the communities where we operate and serve. In 2023, Metro secured LEED Platinum certification at our L’Enfant Plaza Headquarters. 
• Bringing 10 megawatts of community solar to the region: Our solar carport project, with installationsat Anacostia, Naylor Road, Southern Avenue, and Cheverly stations, has started delivering renewable energy to local residential and commercial customers. 
• Completing system-wide energy-efficient lighting retrofit: By replacing more than 100,000 old fluorescent and incandescent lights with new Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) across administrative and maintenance facilities, Metro is providing brighter, safer, and more efficient lighting and saving $1 million annually.
• Showing customers their personal impact: Metro launched Your Metro Report, a tool which gave riders an estimate of how much carbon dioxide they personally saved the environment by choosing transit over driving. It also showed them how many rail and bus trips they took as well as how many miles they traveled by transit.

Environmental Sustainability is a key goal in Metro’s strategic plan. To learn more about the strategic plan, please visit wmata.com/initiatives/strategic-plan. To find out about Metro’s sustainability initiatives, please visit: wmata.com/initiatives/sustainability.