[PRCo] Re: Evening___Service

[John Swindler]

Everyone wants a blank check.

In all the babble about fare increases and service reductions, no one - not 
in Pittsburgh nor in any other cities - has bothered to ask the question:  
so what was my local transit company doing during the economic good times 
(high tax revenues) of the late 1990s??

The numbers are on the internet in the Federal Transit Administrations 
National Transit Database.

In 1997, PAT reported to the federal government that it's buses operated 
24,166,135 annual vehicle revenue miles.

In 2001, PAT reported to the federal government that it's buses operated 
29,579,081 annual vehicle revenue miles.

During this time, bus ridership went from 63.5 million to 66.0 million

Also during this time, light rail declined from 1.71 to 1.64 million annual 
revenue miles, despite an increase from 7.4 to 7.5 million annual 
passengers.

And it's not just Pittsburgh - and it's not just transit.  There are a lot 
of luxury's that are now considered necessities.

It's very easy to be generous with someone else's money.  Just ask your kids 
for a Christmas list.  What makes you think government is any different.

John



>From: Fred Schneider <fschnei at supernet.com>
>Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
>Subject: [PRCo] Re: Evening___Service
>Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 11:04:40 -0400
>
>Probably would be, if it were to be done.  Remember what John has often 
>said about the only real money and the only real politics are  local.  If 
>the state threatens to cut back on funds, the first thing you must do as a 
>local politician is stir up hatred against the state and / or federal 
>politicians.  It doesn't matter at all if you are running empty vehicles on 
>a 1950 route map, if the state treatens to cut money, you must always 
>threaten to do something drastic.  Never suggest slightly rearranging 
>timetables or routes  to live within the budget.  Those are things that the 
>private sector would do.  Threaten instead to wipe out whole groups of 
>people such as
>evening riders.
>
>It's the old rule of cut out the widows, welfare recipients and orphans 
>firsts.  Hit them where it hurts in their "apple pie, motherhood, and 
>Chevrolet" ideals.
>
>Could this be nothing more than posturing between local mayors and county 
>commissioners on one side and the new governor on the other?
>
>I'll wager that the only thing that changes is the share of state funding 
>goes up (*not down) and the share from the farefox continues to wane.
>
>Mark McGuire wrote:
>


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