[PRCo] Re: Upcoming Bus/Rail Cuts and Higher Fares at PATransit

[Fred Schneider]

Thanks Herb.

It is sad but not unexpected news.     

I see we are back to blaming the state for not solving Pittsburgh's funding crisis.  Happens every year.   The state is always the guilty party because local politicians are unwilling or unable to tax their own constituents.  In the case of Pittsburgh and probably Cleveland too, where the local pols cannot raise taxes because there is no one left at home (or not industries left) to tax.   I cannot pull up Wikipedia today because of their protest 24 hour shutdown but it occurs to me that both Pittsburgh and Cleveland are in the same ballpark ... cities that lost between 60 and 65 percent of their population since 1950 ... a loss so great that it even pulled the surrounding county down too.   In the case of western Pennsylvania, Westmoreland and Butler counties are the only ones where the 2010 population is an all-time record.  It's pretty difficult to tax people who moved out or died.  And as Philadelphia has discovered and keeps discovering, if you tax the industry or put a wage tax on the employees, the industries simply move to the suburbs.  There are few solutions other than merging the city with all the surrounding counties.  

Lets go back to 1964 when PAT took over.   What was the fare then?   Probably around 25 cents?  Maybe 30 cents?   I don't have a record of it.   If we adjust 25 cents to the consumer price index, it should be 7.3 times higher today or $1.83.   Adjusting 30 cents goes to $2.19.  Now we have to make a further adjustment for losses in efficiency due to people moving out of the area and reduced passenger loads on vehicles ... perhaps we should increase it by 3 or 4 times more ... that would bring it up to $5.50 to $7.35.   We also have to make an adjustment for all those 20-some independent bus companies whose drivers were moved up to Pittsburgh Railways union scale.  Maybe the real number is closer to $10 per passenger.    But the one zone ride is only $2.25 and we expect the rest to come out of taxes .... but never out of local taxes if we can avoid it.   It should always come out of federal or state taxes, especially when Pittsburgh's population has dropped by about 65% since 1950 and and how do you do that when the population is declining / aging and the corporations are leaving.   If you raise the taxes you simply drive out more people.   If you raise the fares to a reasonable level, you put more people in automobiles and increase air pollutants and use more gasoline which we don't have.   I have no answers, only more questions.  

My reaction is that many routes which used to offer service to the mills would not run after 10 p.m. because there are no mills left that have shift workers or those workers are using their own cars.   

John Swindler's dad, even after they moved to Castle Shannon, still commuted to Homestead Works by PAT.   Wouldn't be possible today but then there is no Homestead Works today.   And no J&L on East Carson Street either.   And all that mill traffic in Lawrenceville and along Butler Street is gone ... the Armstrong Cork plant at 24th Street where my dad worked is an apartment house now.  The companies where my father worked in Irwin and Ambridge and Cheswick between 1935 and 1949 (Gulf Oil, National Electric, Penn Electric) have all gone out of business.   

And the politicians in Harrisburg are always going to be reluctant to tax people in Lancaster or York or Harrisburg because they might like to be reelected and serve long enough to wallow in a pension.   It's not about what is best for the public; it's about best for them.  

Which routes will still have late evening service?   Those which still have the densest population. Surprisingly they are routes serving some of the pockets of minority populations.   Perrysville is now heavily black.   I think Lincoln is too.  So is Braddock.   Negley and Hamilton might be.   

So much for Fred's interpretation of the news.   

Now, will someone tell me how one of those two Ingram routes got renamed Fairywood?   




On Jan 18, 2012, at 9:31 AM, Herb Brannon wrote:

> From this mornings Pittsburgh Post Gazette:
> 
> More Port Authority transit cuts ahead
> Port Authority CEO says rollback plan 'not a scare tactic,' pleads for
> state aid
> Wednesday, January 18, 2012
> By Jon Schmitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
> 
> Venerable bus routes serving Mt. Lebanon, Coraopolis, Green Tree, Mount
> Washington, Oakmont, Edgewood and Sewickley will be among 45 routes
> eliminated by the Port Authority in September if there is no solution to a
> statewide transportation funding crisis.
> 
> Riders who aren't stranded will pay more -- the authority plans a 25-cent
> increase in the base Zone 1 fare, to $2.50, on July 1. Zone 2 rides will go
> up 50 cents, to $3.75. It will be the fourth fare increase in the past 4
> 1/2 years. The last was in January 2011.
> 
> As part of a 35 percent reduction in service hours that would take effect
> Sept. 2 -- the largest cut in the agency's 48-year history -- all of the
> authority's current 102 bus and rail routes would be scaled back, some
> ending altogether and others with deep drops in off-peak and weekend
> service.
> 
> On all but 13 routes, service would terminate at or around 10 p.m. daily.
> Weekend service would be eliminated on the Blue Line of the Light Rail
> Transit system.
> 
> All routes will end service at approximately 10 p.m. except for the
> following: 8 Perrysville, 16 Brighton, 27 Fairywood, 51 Carrick, 61B
> Braddock, 71A Negley, 71D Hamilton, 82 Lincoln, 86 Liberty, 91 Butler
> Street, G2 West Busway, P1 East Busway, Red Line
> 
> The reduction, coupled with a 15 percent service cut last March, would
> leave the region's biggest transit agency with barely half of the service
> it offered a year ago.
> 
> An estimated 500 to 600 jobs could be eliminated, with most of that
> achieved through layoffs, authority CEO Steve Bland said.
> 
> "If we have to go through with these reductions, my feeling is it's the
> beginning of the end of public transit as a significant carrier in the
> region," he said.
> 
> "It's absolutely not a scare tactic," he said of the proposal being
> unveiled today. "The folks who use the routes we eliminated in March know
> how real it is. It's as serious as a heart attack."
> 
> The authority is facing a projected $64 million deficit in its 2012-13
> operating budget, which takes effect in July. Flat or declining aid from
> the state and Allegheny County in recent years, coupled with soaring costs
> of retirement benefits and fuel, have pushed the agency to the brink of
> insolvency.
> 
> According to the agency's most recent audit, state operating assistance
> decreased by $34.2 million in the fiscal year that ended last June 30, a 19
> percent drop. State aid makes up more than half of the authority's income.
> 
> The main hope for avoiding the next round of cuts rests in Harrisburg,
> where neither Gov. Tom Corbett nor the Legislature has acted on a panel's
> recommendations to raise new revenue for the state's crumbling roads,
> bridges and transit systems.
> 
> Mr. Corbett is expected to address the issue either in his 2012-13 budget
> address on Feb. 7 or before that. Legislative leaders from both parties
> have called for action on transportation funding but said the governor's
> support will be needed to pass anything.
> 
> The Port Authority also faces contract talks with the union representing
> drivers, mechanics and first-level supervisors. The main contract with
> Local 85 of the Amalgamated Transit Union expires June 30, and the agency
> is expected to push for significant concessions.
> 
> The transit cut and fare proposal will be discussed at a meeting of the
> Port Authority's planning and development committee this morning. Public
> comment will be accepted from Feb. 5 to March 9, and an all-day public
> hearing will be held Feb. 29 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
> 
> Mr. Bland said it is possible to reverse the service cut if the governor
> and the Legislature act by late July or early August. Once the reduction
> has taken effect, "it isn't really reversible. You just don't get the
> ridership back," he said.
> 
> The fare increase is likely to occur even if the state provides more money,
> he said.
> 
> The cost of weekly, monthly and annual passes will rise along with the cash
> fares. Monthly and annual pass purchasers will get a slight discount.
> Transfers will continue to cost $1.
> 
> Express service to the suburbs was heavily targeted in the reduction plan.
> To be eliminated are the G3 Moon Flyer, G31 Bridgeville Flyer, O5 Thompson
> Run Flyer, P10 Allegheny Valley Flyer, P12 Holiday Park Flyer, P13 Mount
> Royal Flyer, P16 Penn Hills Flyer, P17 Lincoln Park Flyer, P67 Monroeville
> Flyer, P68 Braddock Hills Flyer, P69 Trafford Flyer, P71 Swisshelm
> Park-Rankin Flyer, P76 Lincoln Highway Flyer, P78 Oakmont Flyer and Y45
> Baldwin Manor Flyer.
> 
> The 28X Airport Flyer might terminate outbound service at Robinson Town
> Centre (eliminating the leg to Pittsburgh International Airport), depending
> on whether a federal grant designed to improve access to jobs is renewed,
> Mr. Bland said.
> 
> Express routes were targeted because they are the most expensive for the
> authority to operate and because their riders typically have other options.
> "They tend to use park-and-ride and can drive farther, or drive into the
> city, in contrast with the person who is completely dependent on public
> transit," he said.
> 
> Cost recovery on longer, more expensive routes was also a factor in
> deciding to raise Zone 2 fares twice as much as those in Zone 1, he said.
> 
> According to the authority, 100 municipalities or neighborhoods will lose
> all transit service if the reductions are implemented. Among them are
> Braddock Hills, East Hills, Edgeworth, Elizabeth, Fineview, Forest Hills,
> Holiday Park, Manchester, Moon, North Fayette, North Versailles, Trafford,
> Turtle Creek, Verona and Wilmerding.
> 
> Service also would be discontinued to the Allegheny County Airport in West
> Mifflin; Boyce campus of Community College of Allegheny County; Brinton
> Towers senior housing complex in Braddock Hills; Olympia Shopping Center in
> McKeesport; Parkway Center Mall in Banksville; and the VA Medical Center on
> Highland Drive in Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar.
> 
> The authority board is scheduled to vote April 27 to finalize the service
> reduction plan and fare increases. The board took a similar vote in
> November 2010, authorizing a 35 percent cut in service hours, but then-Gov.
> Ed Rendell came up with $45 million in emergency aid the following month.
> As a result, the authority was able to temporarily make ends meet with the
> 15 percent service reduction last March.
> 
> That stranded thousands of riders and forced others onto overcrowded buses.
> Despite adjustments, it is still common for buses to pass up waiting riders
> because there is no room for them.
> Jon Schmitz: jschmitz at post-gazette.com or 412-263-1868. Visit the PG's
> transportation blog, The Roundabout, at www.post-gazette.com/roundabout.
> Twitter: @pgtraffic.
> 
> First published on January 18, 2012 at 12:50 am
> 
> Read more:
> http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12018/1204207-147-0.stm?cmpid=news.xml#ixzz1jou8qHFe
> 
> 
> -- 
> Herb Brannon
> In Cuyahoga Valley National Park
> 
> 
>