WMATA provides rapid transit service under the Metrorail name, fixed-route bus service under the Metrobus brand, and paratransit service under the MetroAccess brand. In , the system had a ridership of ,,, or about , per weekday as of the third quarter of The agency participates in regional transportation planning and the execution of transit infrastructure projects. Recent projects include an infill station serving Potomac Yard and an extension of Metrorail to Dulles International Airport.
The authority's board of directors consists of two voting representatives each from the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and the U. Each jurisdiction also appoints two alternate representatives. WMATA has no independent taxation authority and depends on its member jurisdictions for capital investments and operating funding. Starting in the midth century, the Washington area had been served by a variety of private bus lines and streetcar services , including extensions of Northern Virginia trolleys.
Financier Louis Wolfson acquired the company in but had his franchise revoked in amid a crippling strike. Congress then awarded a year concession to O. Roy Chalk on the condition that he replace the city's remaining streetcars with buses by The company was thereafter known as D. Also in , the Mass Transportation Survey began to plan highway and mass transit systems that would meet the needs of the Washington area in The report also called for extensive freeway construction within the District of Columbia, but residents successfully lobbied for a moratorium on freeway construction in what became part of a movement called the " freeway revolts.
Encouraged by the new act, the NCTA recommended the formation of a private entity or a multi-state authority to operate the system using more non-federal funds.
The authority was created by an interstate compact , a special type of contract or agreement between one or more states. Pursuant to the Compact Clause of the U. Constitution, any such compact must be approved by Congress. As a government agency, the compact grants WMATA sovereign immunity by all three jurisdictions in which it operates, and except for certain limited exceptions, the authority cannot be successfully sued unless it waives immunity.
