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Donald Trump‘s budget proposal continues to alarm critics, including Tim Kaine.
Yesterday, the senator and former vice presidential candidate toured construction being done on the D.C. Metro, saying that Trump’s budget proposal has the power to make riding the transit system even worse of an experience than it is now. He checked out the tracks at King Street Station in Alexandria along with Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld, then rode the train, according to NBC 4.
“Starving it of the oxygen, starving it of the funding will hurt this system. Our region doesn’t work without Metro,” Kaine noted. He said he is sure the federal government will uphold its commitment to continue funding Metro at $150 million per year for the next two years (the length of the current agreement, which can be extended) and pointed out he’s open to a proposed fare hike and even a change in who governs the transit agency.
Speaking of governing, Wiedefeld and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser visited Trump at the White House last week to talk about the importance of the Metro, which moves 1 million people per day. At peak hours, 40% of those are federal employees.
Wiedefeld said, “We talked more about the importance of Metro to the region in terms of the million passengers we move a day, in terms of 40 percent of the peak hours being federal employees, what it means for the economy of this region. So we talked in those terms.”
Watch above to see Kaine decked out in a hard hat as he talks funding.
[image via screengrab]
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