Saturday, June 13, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Sounder Train Video
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Compare 24 West Coast Transit agencies changes due to the recession
Friday, June 5, 2009
If BART's broke, it's management's fault
Employees generate money for a company and management spends that money for said company.
If the money is all gone, never look at the employees for answers...they didn't spend it. Management did.
Add in the fact that BART is a company that depends on money from the government, you'll also see BART's financial planning is similar to the military. Neither will attempt to save money.
For example, you get 1 million dollars from the government and decide to save 500,000, the next fiscal year you'll get 500,000 dollars instead of 1 million dollars. Of course if you get 1 million dollars from the government and spend all of it plus another 1 million dollars; you can request the government give you 2 million dollars next fiscal year instead of 1 million dollars.
If BART's broke, blame those that spent all that money. It's management's fault.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Bay Area Transit Agency Weathering the Economic Downturn better than most
WES is costing more than its worth
WES Commuter Rail
Alert in effect: After thorough inspections and testing of the three WES trains overnight, it was discovered that blooms from cottonwood trees were clogging the air filters on the trains’ cooling systems and blocking the sensors needed to keep the trains in operation. The filters have been cleaned, and will be cleaned weekly while the cottonwood trees are releasing blooms. All WES trains will be running for the evening commute.
And this is what we pay $120,000+ to people at TriMet for, to assume its bad gas to blooms.........TriMet needs a major overhaul.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
LA Metro Adopts budget, NO service cuts or Fare increase
Metro Board Adopts FY10 Budget
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) Board of Directors today adopted a $3.9 billion budget for Fiscal Year 2009-10 that begins July 1, 2009.
The spending plan is half a billion dollars or just under 15 percent more than the current Metro budget. The increase is largely due to a spate of new highway and transit building projects such as construction of a 10-mile northbound carpool lane on the I-405 freeway from the 10 to 101 freeways. Altogether, Metro will undertake $636 million in new programs in FY10, funded largely with federal stimulus funds and the new Measure R transit sales tax that will be collected starting July 1.
Among other major transportation advances in the coming fiscal year, Metro will begin operation of the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension to East Los Angeles, purchase 219 compressed natural gas buses for Metro and its contract carriers (the purchase of larger buses will increase Metro’s bus seat capacity 1 percent), continue construction of the Expo light rail line from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City, begin construction of a four mile extension of the popular Metro Orange Line busway from Canoga Park to Chatsworth and advance numerous planning studies for new transit projects throughout Los Angeles County.
As mandated by Measure R, there will be no general Metro fare increase in FY10, and fares for seniors, students, the disabled and Medicare recipients will stay at current levels for five years. The new transit sales tax that begins July 1 will keep Metro fares low, however, the Metro Board must still grapple with higher operating costs and cuts in other revenue.
California lawmakers have completely eliminated state transit assistance, which, in recent years has provided Metro with about $100 million annually in operating dollars. Local Props. A & C transit sales tax revenue also is projected to decline five percent over the current fiscal year due to the recession. In addition, Metro is negotiating new contracts this spring with its major labor unions representing operators, maintenance employees and clerks.
Despite the drop in revenue, Metro will not raise fares or consider major service reductions. However, Metro has cut expenses by more than $130 million. It also will dip into reserves to balance the FY10 budget.
BART Board approves fare increase, added parking fees effective July 1st
At a May 28th meeting, board members said two-thirds of the solution will be from reducing labor and non-labor related expenses. However they did approve several modest fare increases along with expansion of parking fees:
- Increased fares 6.1% effective July 1, 2009 (this CPI-based fare increase was previously scheduled for January 2010)
- Increased lowest priced fare from $1.50 to $1.75
- Raised the surcharge on trips to and from San Francisco International Airport from $1.50 to $4.00
- Expanded the $1 a day parking program to eight more stations
Download the complete fare chart (128k .pdf)
“The idea of a 10% across-the-board fare increase didn’t sit well with most board members because it put too much of a financial strain on our regular commuters,” BART Board President Thomas Blalock said. “We wanted to find a way to raise revenues without over burdening our loyal customers. Our riders already knew that our fares go up every other year by the cost of living – we simply accelerated the date on which the fares would normally go up by six months. We also raised our lowest priced fare to be less than or in line with the cash fare of other Bay Area transit agencies.”
“We decided on a $2.50 increase on the SFO surcharge because it allows us to raise much needed revenues without impacting our regular riders,” BART Board Vice President James Fang said. Fang, who is the Board’s longest-serving member pointed out that only three percent of BART’s riders use the SFO Station and half of them are not regular riders, but tourists. “A BART ride from downtown San Francisco to the airport will go from $5.35 to $8.10 with the additional surcharge. However, that’s still a bargain when you consider the alternative such as a $35 cab ride or a $20 shuttle van ride.”
Letter to the Editor in todays Oregonian about MAX
Delay Green line MAX
TriMet's inability to meet current budget needs prompt service cuts and begs the question: Why not delay opening the Clackamas Town Center light-rail service?
How can you miss a service you don't have? We currently have adequate bus service.
The MAX system is a duplicate service at a significant cost because fare revenue covers less than 25 percent of the operating cost, which adds millions in overhead costs. We are fast approaching a mass transit system cost that exceeds our ability to pay for the service.
The public has not had the opportunity to decide how much it should subsidize the cost of our fellow Oregonians' commute to work. Perhaps that should change.
ELWIN WILSON
Southeast Portland
>>Sounds like a good idea to me, but it might crush Fred's dreams, and we can't have that now!