The MT Position

Posted by Fred Jandt
Mass Transit magazine editor

The stimulus bill has been signed. The money is going through appropriations and agencies across the United States are licking their chops at what they might be able to do with that money. This is especially the case for rail agencies — or potential rail agencies — but should funding for intercity rail be considered a part of transportation funding, or should it be a matter of national defense?

It isn’t a surprise to most of us in the transit industry that the interstate highway system was built on the back of national defense in 1956. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 is often better known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956 and accounted for $25 billion in funding for the system. One of the major plans for the interstate highway system was as a means of high-speed supply transfer and troop deployment in case of an invasion.

But would this still be the case? If another country did invade the United States, would the military be able to use the interstate highways as planned? Or would they be choked with civilian cars as they flee from the invading force? With so many cars on the roads today, I have to believe the latter.

This brings up high-speed rail. How much better would a system of high-speed, interconnected, intercity rail lines be for national defense? It’s not like we have lots of people with their own trains who could clog those tracks. And trains moving at 200+ miles per hour would seem to be a much better means of supply and troop transfer.

Of course, the nature of war has changed just as much as transit has since 1956. If 9/11 is any indication, any future attacks on the United States will be by terrorists and not a large armed force. This may be the reason it’s difficult to sell an intercity rail network as a necessary national defense measure.

One thing that hasn’t changed, and one we have a tendency to forget, is that the interstate highway system was finished vastly over budget and far later than it was originally promised. If a rail line took more than a dozen years and $100 million dollars more than projected to finish, the cries of boondoggle would be able to be heard across the country.

Should the rail lines be thrown into the national defense budget? Possibly. If I could travel by train instead of airline to some destinations, maybe the airlines wouldn’t be such a target for terrorists.

Besides, doesn’t the President Barack Obama National System of Interstate and Defense Rail Networks have a good ring to it?

Please check out Mass Transit’s Top 40 Under 40 promotion on our Web site. We’re looking to recognize transit’s best and brightest under the age of 40 in an upcoming issue.

Click on the link and you can read more about it and nominate yourself or any of your colleagues.

Thanks for reading the MT Position updated every Friday,

Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com
Check out our LinkedIn page!

by Karl Ostby

Although Southeastern Wisconsin currently has the only regional transit authority (RTA) in the state of Wisconsin, elected leaders, business owners and community partners across the state are taking notice of the need for expanded mass transit and the economic development potential it holds. Governor Doyle should be applauded for promoting the creation of RTAs in the biennial budget, and legislators support this measure as an important way to generate both short- and long-term economic development in our state.

Metropolitan areas across the nation have already recognized regional economic development as the key to a successful future. While our current system is bound by municipal lines, the three-county region of Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha should be credited for embracing regionalism as part of a united effort to make smart improvements, strengthening communities within this region and opening the door for regional transit authorities to be established throughout the state. As our state deals with a struggling economy and looks for opportunities to build infrastructure investments and create jobs, our leaders should unite in supporting transit infrastructure investments and the creation of regional transit systems throughout our state.

Southeastern Wisconsin may be furthest along the proverbial tack in this regard. Recently, the Southeastern Wisconsin RTA recommended dedicated funding for its local transit systems and for the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee (KRM) commuter rail system, which would create a commuter rail link from Milwaukee to Chicago. The KRM is expected to drive an economic and cultural revitalization in this region that will ripple throughout the state and help create a regional model for other communities to follow.

The proposed KRM commuter rail line will create opportunities for additional infrastructure projects by driving economic growth, creating new jobs and linking a new population to the amenities, educational opportunities and cultural offerings throughout the state. Public transit such as the KRM encourages growth and urban development, resulting in more efficient mobility, public infrastructure and services. Commuter rail will also provide the highest level of reliability, significantly reducing highway traffic congestion and vehicle-generated air pollutant emissions in proportion to its potential to attract greater transit ridership, longer trips by transit and new transit trips. As Wisconsin’s largest city, a strong Milwaukee region will benefit the rest of the state.

Statewide support for the regional transit and transit-oriented development opportunities created in the state budget is critical to build upon the foundation set by the efforts currently taking place in southeastern Wisconsin and establish a strong transit infrastructure throughout the state. For example, it was recently announced that Madison and the surrounding area would play host to major cycling and other sporting events should Chicago be awarded the 2016 Olympic games. Having the regional governance structures in place to build transit infrastructure to take advantage of these types of opportunities to attract business and economic development is critical. It goes without saying the statewide economy would be greatly impacted through the increased jobs and revenue opportunities.

Increased transit is crucial to our economic future and demand for it will grow as gas prices fluctuate. Wisconsin as a whole will benefit from integration with the Chicago and northeastern Illinois market, and should work to create a statewide network of regional transit systems and enhanced transit infrastructure so we are poised to take advantage of economic growth and job opportunities.

Karl Ostby is the chairman of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority.

By Larry Filler

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law earlier this week, stands to be President Obama’s first major legislative victory and holds a great deal of significance for commuters and all users of mass transit.

In addition to $8.4 billion dollars in funding for transit, $8.4 billion for high-speed rail and $1.3 billion for Amtrak, the economic stimulus package also features a significant change in IRS code 132(f) regarding employer-provided commuter benefits.

Prior to the new law, employees were eligible to set aside up to $120 on a pretax basis to pay for transit and vanpool commuting costs and $230 to pay for work-related parking. Employers could also provide a tax-free subsidy or fringe benefit for the same amount. Thanks to the stimulus package, the transit/vanpool benefit cap has been increased to $230, rectifying an imbalance with parking savings that dates back to the earliest days of commuter benefits.

This change is significant in that it will enable most commuters to pay for their entire commute on a tax-free basis. A commuter spending more than $200 on his or her monthly transit commute can save up to $1,000 per year if he or she enrolls in a commuter benefits program, which will give many families important financial relief. Additionally, this cap increase helps offset the many looming fare increases that commuters have been facing across the nation.

Employers will benefit from this historic change as well; companies offering the benefit could save up to an additional $100 per employee per year in payroll taxes. And according to a recent survey by BusinessWeek Research and TransitCenter, commuter benefits plans are a growing trend among the nation’s corporations:

• 40 percent of employers currently offer a commuter benefits program
• 30 percent of employers said they would offer commuter benefits if the transit cap increased to $200
• 62 percent of employees say they participate in a commuter benefits program
• 53 percent of employees said they would participate if their companies offered it

The new cap increase also promises a significant environmental impact if it has the predicted effect of causing more employees to take advantage of transit commuting by switching from driving to work and using transit more often. According to the same survey, 41 percent of those enrolled in commuter benefits programs increased their use of mass transit, and 46 percent increased their mass transit usage during weekends. In addition, 18 percent of employees who joined the program switched from driving alone to riding mass transit. The American Public Transportation Association reports that switching from driving to riding mass transit reduces CO2 emissions by 4,800 pounds per person per year.

Employees who’d like to find out if their company offers a program should contact their benefits administrator for more information. If their company doesn’t currently offer a program, they should make a request to their benefits administrator to add a program, or contact a company for more information about setting up a commuter benefits program.

Larry Filler is the president and CEO of TransitCenter.

Posted by Fred Jandt
Mass Transit magazine Editor

My kids got $5 each from their grandparents for Valentine’s Day. And like most kids, that money started burning a hole in their pocket as soon as they got it. They went to bed that night with dreams of what they would spend the money on like they’d just hit the lottery. This week President Obama signed the stimulus bill into law authorizing billions of dollars for transit and already it’s burning a hole in pockets of transit agencies across the nation.

I know most agencies are starved for funds, but really, I’ve seen stories all week about what this agency or that one will do with its stimulus dollars. Has it come down to the point where federal funding is treated like an allowance or worse yet, a reward transit agencies get if they’re “good”?

Just increase your ridership by more than 7 percent this year and there will be a little something extra in the next funding bill for you!

Come on. This continues the history of mass transit being the red-headed stepchild of federal transportation funding. You know what; transit’s followed the rules, ate its vegetables and is doing its homework when it comes to moving people in a safe, efficient and environmentally sound fashion. Transit should be pushed to the forefront of infrastructure spending.

And thankfully it looks like that may happen. The increase in funding for high-speed rail seems to have come as a request from the White House itself. The president and vice president both know the value of rail and look to be pushing that ideal out to Congress. But now is the time for transit agencies to prove that they are fiscally responsible as well.

I would hate for us to sit here at this time next year and be asking where did that $8 billion for rail go in much the same way people are currently asking banks where their federal funds went.

As I said last week, check out Mass Transit’s new Top 40 Under 40 promotion on our Web site. We’re looking to recognize transit’s best and brightest under the age of 40 in an upcoming issue. We’ve received quite a few good responses, but I know there are more talented people out there. I also know that it’s hard for some of the bigger agencies to focus on something like this with everything they’ve got going on, but I’m sure they’ve got some of transit’s best and brightest working for them, too.

Take a few minutes and fill out the nomination form for one of your colleagues or yourself!

Thanks for reading the MT Position updated every Friday,

Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com
Check out our LinkedIn page!

Posted by Fred Jandt
Mass Transit magazine Editor

I’m a gadget guy. The annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas each January is like Christmas to me. I also frequent gadget Web sites to see what new product releases or latest updates are hitting the streets. So I was pleasantly surprised this week when I ran across something that could revolutionize transit — regenerative shock absorbers!

A group of MIT students designed the shock absorber that pushes hydraulic fluid through a turbine powering a generator. The shock absorbers are also actively controlled, so they should provide a smoother ride than normal shocks.

The group has already garnered interest from the U.S. Army, which is looking to switch from its Humvee to the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV). The army is spending $40 billion on this new vehicle, so if they can be a part of that contract, they will definitely have the money to develop this technology further.

OK, so I’m probably exaggerating when I say that this could revolutionize transit. But it could mean a serious change if the 10 percent improvement in fuel efficiency the students claim turns out to be true. Think of a hybrid vehicle with regenerative brakes and regenerative shocks. Now add in something like electric-powered ventilation systems and roll it all together. What fuel savings will you see?

Hybrids are one of transit’s best options in this time of down economy and uneven fuel prices — we all know they are going back up this summer. Any component that can push increased fuel efficiency is an excellent addition to the growing numbers of hybrids in transit fleets across the country. And with more hybrids in transit fleets, hopefully they can become the standard and reduce overall prices in the process.

By the way, check out Mass Transit’s new Top 40 Under 40 promotion on our Web site. We’re looking to recognize transit’s best and brightest under the age of 40 in an upcoming issue.

Click on the link and you can read more about it and nominate yourself or any of your colleagues.

Thanks for reading the MT Position updated every Friday,

Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com
Check out our LinkedIn page!

By John Catoe

On January 18th, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro) moved 616,324 people on Metrorail, setting a new Sunday rail ridership record by 75,000. On January 19th, we set a new weekday Metrorail record with 866,681 people. And we broke that record on January 20th, carrying close to 1.1 million people. On Inauguration Day, our combined rail and bus totals broke 1.5 million trips. In short, we provided excellent service, and the months and months of planning paid off. Just as important as that planning, though, was our flexibility.

In the military, they say that no battle plan survives the first engagement with the enemy, and that’s true for anything. No matter how well you plan, there are things you can control and there are those you can’t. For those things you can’t control you need the flexibility to react, a flexibility that comes from having knowledgeable and well-trained employees and volunteers. We were able to react quickly to a constantly changing situation and put the right resources in the right places throughout that weekend.

Let me give you a dramatic example. On Inauguration Day, one of our riders, a 68-year-old woman, fell onto the tracks and survived what could have been a life threatening situation, with only minor injuries.

She survived because a volunteer transit police officer from the Houston Metro transit authority was on the scene and able to get the woman to safety by directing her to crawl under the platform’s overhang where there is about two feet of clearance. This was all done with only seconds to spare as the train pulled into the station.

The woman was lucky. She was lucky that the officer was there, and lucky that he knew what to do because he’d been trained by Metro Transit Police officers the day before. Planning, training and flexibility; those things contributed to saving a woman’s life, and they contributed to our successful service during the inauguration.

Having successfully supported the inauguration, I think it is very important for us to realize that in the next 20 years, Metro will be expected to carry close to this many people every single weekday. We’ll need the resources to do that. We’ll need to fully leverage our bus service with rapid and express routes as we did then. Our special corridor service carried more than 200,000 people that day, which helped take pressure off of the rail system.

We now have a concrete idea of what it’s like to carry more than one million people in a day on Metrorail. It isn’t just an abstract number anymore, and it highlights the importance of funding for transit, in Washington, D.C., and across the nation.

John Catoe is the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s general manager.

Posted by Fred Jandt
Mass Transit magazine Editor

The stimulus bill is all over the headlines and the forefront in most people’s minds, especially in the transit industry. But at the same time stories are popping up all across the country of underfunded transit agencies looking to cut services and lay off workers while ridership continues to sky rocket. I think we have this funding plan all wrong.

The big pitch by transit advocates is that transit creates jobs and should be included in President Obama’s stimulus plan because of the list of ready-to-go projects just waiting for federal funding. You want a list of ready-to-go projects? Take a look at this list:

• New York - MTA
• Washington - WMATA
• Atlanta - MARTA
• St. Louis - Metro
• Denver - RTD
• Charlotte - CATS

Every one of these agencies is looking at drastic service and staffing cuts to make up for budget shortages. And these are just the ones listed in a recent New York Times article. I could probably name off another six agencies in the same situation without too much trouble.

Here’s the thing about the stimulus money. It’s great. It’s more than appreciated. But by targeting it at building new stuff to create jobs, it is kind of short-sighted when you really think about it. Charlotte just put in its new light rail line, is seeing ridership numbers they hadn’t in decades, and is still considering cutting back on service. What would a new rail line do for any other already cash-strapped agency? Bring in more riders? Great, just what we need. (It’s hard to believe that we can be thinking that.)

So how about taking that $10 to $20 billion in the stimulus bill and put all of it into operating funds. Let’s get the buses and trains running to full capacity for the influx of riders that we know are there. Will this stimulate jobs? Yes, and keep the ones that are already there from being cut.

Of course the problem with operating funds is that it’s like throwing wood on a fire. Eventually the wood gets consumed and you don’t have that shiny new train line or those shiny new buses to point to and tell constituents that’s where their money was spent. But if those constituents have been riding the buses and trains kept going by the funding, you can stand on one of those buses and say, this is where your money is being spent.

The mantra for the stimulus bill is creating more jobs and getting people back to work. Well, transit does that by its very nature. It doesn’t need shiny new toys to do that.

Transit doesn’t need investment in its infrastructure — it needs investment in its ideals.

Thanks for reading the MT Position updated every Friday,

Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com
Check out our LinkedIn page!

By Scott Reed

In these days of ongoing and deepening economic troubles, transit agencies are finding themselves in major budget cutting mode — much like the cutbacks businesses and other public agencies are facing. However, unlike other entities, we are facing cutbacks at a time when demand for our services is at an all-time high. Such is the transit paradox we are all facing.

This transit paradox can be a difficult reality to explain to the public. Many seem to think that public transit should follow the same basic model as businesses: the more of your product you sell, the more profit you make and therefore you should be able to provide even more of your product to meet increased demand. Transit professionals know that our fares cover only a fraction of the cost of financing our service since public transit, like most every other public service, is subsidized and sales taxes or other taxes are really our lifeblood.

The bus and passenger rail service we provide, our very reason for being, is almost always among the big-ticket items on the potential chopping block. This seems to makes perfect sense as it is generally one of the biggest components of our annual budgets. Unfortunately, this seemingly logical process can also lead to the unintended ‘downward spiral’ with service cuts in turn leading to fewer riders, leading to even lower farebox recovery, which can ultimately lead to less public support for transit improvements or transit funding.

One message and process that is vitally important during the pain of service cuts is to be sure the public knows that we are making these service cuts as a last resort and in conjunction with cuts to other areas of our budgets. And at the same time, we are doing what we can to increase revenues.

For example, at the Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD), we are facing a $22 million budget shortfall for 2009, and we will likely be facing an even larger budget shortfall for 2010. One of the budget items the RTD board of directors will be voting on is a proposed cut in service totaling about $7 million annually. To cover the remaining $15 million of the shortfall, we have also frozen salaries, enacted a hiring freeze leaving vacant positions unfilled, cut travel budgets, slashed our capital construction program and deferred many other programs.

These cuts pale in comparison to some of the deep slashes that several transit agencies across the country have had to make to cover their large deficits.

On the revenue side of the ledger, we have increased fares for 2009 by an average of 14 percent, which came on the heels of a somewhat smaller fare increase in 2007, so our passengers are indeed paying their fair share of the increased cost of providing our service. We have also implemented this month a new pay-for-parking program covering our most crowded park-n-rides. Under our new Parking Management Program, we charge a differential higher fee for those who live outside the RTD district and therefore do not pay their full share of the sales tax that provides the lion’s share of our funding. Out-of-district parkers pay $4 per day each day for high-demand lots and $2 per day for low-demand lots. Those who live within the RTD district park for free for the first 24 hours each day, and after 24 hours they pay $2 for high-demand lots and $1 for low-demand lots.

We are also attempting to increase advertising revenues through a new five-year advertising contract and are exploring naming rights for stations and transit centers. We are even looking at bringing in a firm that works on a contingency basis to audit sales and use tax collections to be sure that all who are supposed to be paying the RTD tax are doing so.

In these tough times, we can lose sight of our mission of providing the best possible services to our customers. But the current economic recession will inevitably pass. And we are the best alternative to the single-occupant auto, as the American Public Transportation Association’s most recent Transit Savings Report shows with an average annual savings of $8,481 per year by someone taking public transportation instead of driving, based on today’s gas prices and the average unreserved parking rate. We are also the lifeline for the transit dependent and the elderly, and our paratransit services are often the only means of mobility for persons with disabilities.

All of us in the public transportation arena should be proud of what we do each day. We are and will remain a crucial part of the U.S. infrastructure and everyday life for millions of people.

Scott Redd is the assistant general manager, public affairs for the Denver Regional Transportation District.