CPI changes

[brathke at juno.com]

I believe it was National Airlines.  Good point, though, Fred.

Bob 7/17

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On Mon, 17 Jul 2000 19:52:44 -0400 "Fred W. Schneider III"
<fschnei at supernet.com> writes:
> John asks what about today?  How about York, Pennsylvania, John, 
> where YATA has
> spent tremendous sums marketing a name change to RABBITTRANSIT.  I 
> must have
> seen a dozen billboards today advertising a service that a portion 
> of the public
> so small to be noticed uses it that we might just as well say it is 
> useless.  I
> was talking today to a friend who is on the transit agency board in 
> York about
> their decision to use Rabbit in a name ... seemed somewhat sexist to 
> me ...
> something similar to the old airline campaign (was it Eastern?) that 
> went
> something to the effect," I'm Melinda, Fly me to Miami."  How about, 
> "I'm
> thumper.  Ride me to the Mall."  Larry, Curly and Moe aren't dead.  
> Not by a
> long shot.
> 
> John Swindler wrote:
> 
> > Fred W. Schneider III commented:
> >
> > >My favorite story was his about a transit executive preparing for 
> a board
> > >meeting by watching Three Stooges comedies ... it was saying that 
> business
> > >reality has no place at all in transit any longer.  Because of 
> the
> > >operating subsidies and capital grants, and increasing 
> inefficiency,
> > >transit costs have increased 50 times while the CPI has gone up 7 
> times
> > >since 1950.  This is critical to our understanding.
> >
> > As clarification, it was a recently retired executive director of 
> a large
> > multi-modal transit system who claimed that he and the operating 
> managers
> > watched Three Stooges comedies before board meetings because YOUR 
> local
> > politicans have appointed "Larry, Curly and Moe" to YOUR local 
> transit
> > systems' board of directors.  Something to keep in mind next time 
> you read a
> > newspaper account about how a transit board is spending YOUR tax 
> dollars.
> >
> > This retired executive also had some interesting comments (which 
> people
> > didn't like to hear) about the current state of transit 
> management.
> > Essentually, to survive beyond the 1960s, transit had to "get in 
> bed" with
> > politicians and labor to secure tax dollars.  The result has been 
> that "the
> > price of survival has ruined transit management".
> >
> > One of his examples was the 1,000 vehicle Pennsylvania bus pool 
> purchase of
> > the early 1980s.  The idea was for the state/PennDOT to pool 
> transit bus
> > purchases from the state's transit authorities to attract a 
> builder to
> > locate in PA.(ie, jobs)  Except PA never even got a reliable bus, 
> insteading
> > ending up with the Neoplan "Pennliners".  Premature rusting of an 
> A-frame
> > craddle in the engine compartment required millions wasted on 
> rebuilding.
> > But his real story was that all the transit managers in PA 
> dutifully lined
> > up for this bus-pool purchase with one exception.  Bud Weeks at 
> CAT in
> > Harrisburg was originally from ATE Management, which was similar 
> to National
> > City Lines.  Instead, CAT rejected the state money and used local 
> funds to
> > overhaul a group of ten-year old GM buses.  Today, you won't find 
> any of
> > these "Pennliner" (rustliners?) buses on the streets of PA, but 
> Harrisburg
> > still uses many of these now-25 year old GM buses in both peak and 
> off-peak.
> >
> > To get back on topic, much as many railfans would disagree, ATE 
> and National
> > City Lines were professional managers.  So was West Penn and 
> probably
> > Pittsburgh Railways.  But what about today?????  Yes, we have 
> professional
> > fund raisers, and they are needed, but what about the future of 
> light rail
> > operations, maintenance and planning?  Or isn't it important 
> anymore because
> > of the auto???
> >
> > Just some clarification, further comments and still unanswered 
> questions.
> >
> > John S.
> >
> > 
>
________________________________________________________________________
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> http://www.hotmail.com
> 

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On the other hand, you have different fingers.
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