I do. The people who use mass transit care about it. They care about dedicated funding so that their costs aren't too high and so that they have enough service routes that it makes it worthwhile to use the bus(or train/subway/trolley in Philly). However, in Reading, they are contemplating cutting BARTA service up to 30% to deal with a lack of funding, despite rider increases over the past few years. People are using bus service in Reading more often, and so they will be greeted with a scaled-down, more sporadic system on top of an already iffy system they HAVE been using. The lack of sense this makes is amazing. Even SEPTA isn't this bad.
Now, one solution is to charge the elderly during off-peak hours. The elderly are a large percentage of customers, and charging them even a quarter a ride would help. The current fare system lets them ride for free. While noble, there is no dedicated funding so we must get funding from anywhere possible. However, the major priority is to get some funding, whether it is part of the gas tax, or out of general funds, or whatnot, to get this system up to snuff so that more riders will want to use the system and then the dedicated funding won't be needed as much.
mass transit
we wonder (as is the case with Septa), is there and overabundance of middle level management jobs with BARTA, like with SEPTA and AMTRAK? It seems that with transit services they have wasteful imbalances, and the first (and sometimes only) solution is to cut service. And if they charged a nominal fee, they could raise money. the question of course is like with other mass transit: tracing the money from once it leaves the customer's hand to see where it travels and what it does.
Good point
During the last SEPTA strike, people largely bought into the spin that the only ways to keep things going was to make cuts to the union contract. But with such management bloat, there were always other options, including a combination of contract alterations and management responsibility.
I'd be surprised if the same couldn't be said here. Could you raise more funds by charging elderly customers (many of whom may already be stretched too thin financially)? Certainly, but perhaps they could address more systemic issues first. And I'd think they might start by asking honestly how mass transit operates so much more effectively in other areas of the country.
reply
I'm not sure how much administrators and higher-ups make, but let's not demonize them. Many of them are good people who have devoted their lives to a system that's leaving them behind.
no satan transit..
no one is demonizing them (administrators.mid level mgmt)...there are simply too many of them in proportion to other things.
Thanks for that SAC. This
Thanks for that SAC.
This isn't about the middle managers making bad business decisions in most cases. It's about the upper management making poor choices and/or adhering to a bad business plan. No demons, just the observation that SEPTA is incredibly top-heavy for an organization that has so many financial woes.
1:1
I recall reading in the papers during the SEPTA strike last year that the ratio was just about 1:1 in middle management and the lower levels. Now that's some serious bloat. Not demonizing the people, but that just does not seem efficient.
Exactly. I was vaguely
Exactly.
I was vaguely remembering something along those lines, but couldn't recall the whole context.