President-elect Donald Trump may change whether federal employees are allowed to work remotely, sources tell News4.
Some local leaders don’t think that’s a bad idea, especially as it affects the Metro system.
In the wake of the pandemic, federal workers haven’t returned to downtown D.C in force. Metro is still hundreds of thousands of riders short on the rails in comparison to pre-pandemic numbers. Once Trump takes office, that all could change. There are rumblings his administration may call all federal workers back to the office full-time.
If federal employees do get the call to work in their offices more often, Metro could gain tens of thousands of riders, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said.
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“I’ve advocated for a long time that workforce – public sector, private sector – ought to be back in the office. That doesn’t necessarily mean five days, but it does mean a lot more than we’ve got right now,” he said.
Federal agencies are more vulnerable to potential cuts and changes without employees in offices, Warner said.
“Candidly, if there are departments that are only in a day a week, then the ability to say there’s value in having them adjacent to each other, combined, goes down dramatically,” he said.
Virginia Secretary of Transportation Shep Miller has said a lot depends on Metro regaining riders on the rails, including more funding for the system.
“About 400,000 riders a day on Metro today. It used to be 700,000. That’s a problem,” he said.
Metro General Manager Randy Clarke touts the fact, though, that Metro has had the best ridership recovery of any transit system in the country post-pandemic, especially on the bus. He has said more improvements should be coming on the rails.
“I’m convinced we are going to about 500,000 on rail at some point this fiscal year, and then we’ll just keep building from there,” he said.
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Whether federal workers are downtown also has a direct impact on businesses and shops that have struggled since the pandemic began.
There’s been no official word from the incoming Trump administration on whether federal employees will be ordered to return to the office, but sources tell News4 they’re expecting at least some change once he takes office.
