City losing money on citizens' love for capitalism

November 28, 2:46 PMDC Transportation ExaminerKatherine M. Hill

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As you may recall, Metro opened early this morning for Black Friday. Apparently the extra hours are costing the city a nauseating amount of money:

As we reported earlier this week, the District of Columbia arranged with Metro to open the rail system an hour earlier than normal this morning, at 4 a.m. instead of 5 a.m., in order to accommodate shoppers looking to be the first to arrive for early bird sales on "Black Friday." Metro spokesperson Lisa Farbstein emailed to let us know that 2,287 people rode Metro between 4 and 5 a.m. today, and that the cost to the city to pay Metro to open early was $27,000. That comes out to the District having paid $11.80 for each early bird rider. Given that today is also a tax-free holiday for shoppers in the District, that $27,000 is money the city won't make back in sales tax revenue, either.

So...how much money is the city losing on keeping the stations open late for a Skins game? There are at least 1,000 fans using Metro, correct? FedEx Field holds 91,704 people (Wikipedia says the stadium is the largest in NFL, which shows how much I care about football). Let's say a mere ten percent use Metro to get home, numbering 9,170 (a difference against today of 6,883). Cost per rider would amount to $48!

I'm not feeling so great. I think I need to rest.