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Transit officials also want to link the Red Line to the rest of the system. Metro's most heavily traveled line carries about one-third of the entire rush-hour ridership. It is the only line that doesn't share track with another. Connecting the Red Line to the others would give it flexibility it desperately needs, planners say. If Red were connected to Green, for example, a disabled train on the Red could be quickly removed from the line by hauling it away on the Green.

"We have to provide relief valves to redirect the travel by connecting the system in different ways," White said.

The physical limits of the core system are also causing officials to rethink the way Metro operates.

For most of its history, Metro has avoided running bus service that duplicates train service. Rail officials now are considering ways to run the bus service along parallel routes, using it as a relief valve for the overburdened rail system.

"There's a need for a shift in the way we think about this," board member Chris Zimmerman said. "For years, we've said that parallel service is something we want to avoid, but maybe parallel service is no longer redundant service."

Buses also may become a key to handling suburb-to-suburb movement, Chase said. "They're more flexible and can change when the market changes," he said. "If Gannett moves from one place to another, you can't move the rails. But you can tell the bus driver to turn left instead of right."

"More effort has to be made to look at more flexible forms of transit," Chase said. "But Metro and other transit systems don't want to do that, because rail is sexy."

Paying for Progress

Metro says it's not clear how much it would cost to untangle the Blue and Orange lines, connect the Red Line and do many of the structural things necessary to accommodate growth.

Metro's consultants have been working on an analysis of the system's core capacity -- the ability of the tracks, stations and power systems to handle the growth forecast for the next 25 years. Their recommendations for ways to fix the system won't be made until summer.

The federal government pays 30 percent to 80 percent of Metro's expansion and capital costs. Passenger fares, as well as parking and advertising fees, now fund more than half of Metro's operating costs -- a ratio that is one of the highest in the country. Metro officials have promised not to raise fares through 2002.

Local jurisdictions -- Maryland, Virginia and the District -- pay the remaining operating costs as well as maintenance costs.

Costly Plans

Maintenance affects service, a correlation that is becoming more apparent as Metro ages. In the last several years, the transit system's 557 escalators have been breaking down at an epidemic rate, forcing Metro to launch a multi-year program to rehabilitate the oldest 170 escalators and elevators.

The agency is making extensive repairs to the track bed, replacing drainage pumps, fire lines and the concrete slabs that support the rail. Water leaks in the subway tunnels have grown worse over time, especially on the Red Line, corroding the track and electrical systems. About 360 rail cars, built in the 1980s, need a midlife overhaul to reduce their energy consumption and maintenance costs and make them more reliable.

To rehabilitate escalators, rail cars and buses; buy new rolling stock; and expand the core system to handle projected ridership, Metro needs $12.3‚billion between now and 2025, its officials say. Maryland, Virginia and the District have committed to $8.6‚billion, leaving a $3.7 billion shortfall.

White is hoping the federal government will step in and help fill Metro's funding gap, since at least one-third of federal workers ride Metro to their jobs.

"Despite the changing demographics of the region, the critical mass of our ridership remains federal workers," White said, adding that last year's extension of the Metrochek transit subsidy to all federal workers in the region has caused thousands more to switch from cars to Metro.

Congress, which created Metro, has always had a special financial relationship with the transit agency. About $6.4 billion of the $9.4 billion cost to build the rail system was paid by the federal government as a direct appropriation from the general fund, which means Metro didn't have to vie with other transit systems for its money. That's an enviable position that has caused some resentment among the nation's other subway systems.

Transit advocates have been lobbying for several years for a Purple Line to connect Bethesda in Montgomery County with New Carrollton in Prince George's. Metro planners are also looking at ways to

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