Transit Crisis
Post by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit
Okay, that headline sounds like a “The Sky is Falling!” type of cry for attention, but if you are a resident of Pennsylvania, it is far closer to the truth than you would like to admit.
I’ve said previously that the media has a way of latching onto a storyline and running anything close to it, causing a phantom proliferation in the number of events happening at any given time. And yes, this year’s big story seems to be transit budget crises (much like strikes were last year), this situation in Pennsylvania is the proverbial highway wreck you can’t help but rubberneck as you drive past.
Sure there are a lot of transit agencies near the break even point or below, but both of Pennsylvania’s largest transit agencies, serving its two largest population centers, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, are woefully short of operating funds.
And the most interesting part of the whole situation is the dodgeball being played by the myriad of officials who are trying to pass the buck on fixing the problem to somebody other than themselves while still looking good in the process.
The governor’s plan is to either a) raise taxes on oil companies, b) lease the Pennsylvania turnpike or c) both. Okay, so “Big Oil” has become the modern-day bogeyman who everyone is supposed to despise and shake their enraged fists at much like Enron and the like were a few years back before gas prices took off. Going after them is a no-brainer for a politician. Who’s not going to back that plan. But how the governor thinks he can legislate the oil companies from not passing on the tax increase to their customers (and further increasing the cost of gas) mystifies me. I’m sorry, but isn’t that the basis of the capitalist society we’re mired in here?
Leasing the turnpike isn’t a half bad idea … a decade ago. Between SEPTA and the Port Authority of Allegheny County, they are looking at more than $200 million in budget deficit this year before making any service cuts. Turning the turnpike into a toll road will not come up with that kind of cash in the remaining nine months of 2007.
Allegheny County itself is looking to keep a share of taxes collected in the county to funnel into public transit. This would help alleviate the $25 million the county pays each year.
So the county is looking for relief from funding public transit. The governor is looking for relief from the state funding public transit. And oil companies are looking to dodge a tax increase to be used to fund public transit.
See where we are going with this?
As always, everybody loves public transit, everybody understands its important and yet, no one wants to help maintain it — let alone come up with funding to increase it.
I guess in Pennsylvania, everybody wants to get on board, but they want the free pass first.
Thanks for reading the MT Position, updated every Thursday.
March 29th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
Transit Crisis? The politicians can bob and weave their way thru shortcomings in transit with faint praise and regrets. Poetic justice comes with gas rationing and crush loads when events overtake the blissful world of happy motoring. Isn’t it better to take steps to soften the landing, you know, get the wheels down…
One of the bullets the responsibles have to bite is the need to inform the chambers of commerce and the public at large that we are at the leading edge of a transportation emergency in the USA. It will take very little, with oil production straining to meet growing demand, to enter a prolonged period of spot shortages and FEMA allocation of motor fuel supplies. The Association For The Study Of Peak Oil & Gas (peakoil.net) is a good general clearing house for research. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania can discreetly research the Peaking Oil info available, and then decide how to get the juice flowing into the public Transport sector. But this is bigger.
Across America, the responsibles will soon determine, with the help of their respective legal counsels, that they do not want to be on the receiving end of one of many tar & feathers parties -when the public needs seats on the trolley & bus and subway and they aren’t there. The record is already clear; the responsibles at the Federal level are all too well aware of Peaking Oil, one needs only to witness our oil patch doings to figure this out! Investigate comments by Roscoe Bartlett, (R-MA)…
Our Pennsylvania transportation officials need support of officials accros the country, informing the feds that WE KNOW that THEY KNOW about Peaking Oil. Hang separately, Transit officials? Maybe it’s time to hang together and tell it how it is…