[PRCo] Heard on PBS

[Fred Schneider]

Yesterday I sent out a message on the APTA advertising on PBS.   Those
of you who know me personally understand that sometimes I like to stir
the pot to see what kind of responses I will get.  And, my comments
about APTA's lobbying activities did draw one comment.  Sadly, I sent it
too a flock of people on blind carbons and I find that I have no way of
recovering who received it ... I can only guess.   And I have tried to
guess.   Unfortunately I cannot apologize to those who are not receiving
this missive.

One of the recipients was a high level rail manager in the transit
industry who responded with pertinent comments that I thought you should
all see.  So here they are, with his name expurgated of course.

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"On your second point the road boys have the highway lobby, we have APTA
which one do you think has been more effective in promoting their
viewpoint to the public and law   makers?  Unfortunately you gotta spend
some money to get some money and the transit industry has not done a
good job over the years in promoting and advancing itself and the   key
role it plays. I think it’s about time that the transit industry promote
itself and the APTA PT2 program is a good start. What you heard is part
of a national campaign called PT2   and public radio is just one of the
many media outlets that has been chosen to run the ads.  The real big
money in the program really comes form the private sector suppliers,
consultants and vendors. "

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Now back to Fred's own comments:

For those of you who don't know the history ... and I hope I have it
correct here ... APTA resulted sometime in the early 1970s as a merger
of two groups, the American Transit Association and Transit Research
Corporation.  TRC was the successor to the Electric Railway Presidents'
Conference Committee.  Right from the outset it is my understanding that
APTA's purposes included lobbying.  This, by the way, does not indicate
that I am against lobbying ... it is simply a word for trying to
convince a legislator to vote for what you want.