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Op Ed In Sacramento Bee on RT

Posted by Katy Grimes on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 10:53:55 AM
Did you see my column in Saturday's Sacramento Bee?

from my Sacramento Bee op ed 12/19:

Despite its current financial woes and questionable ridership, Regional Transit is plunging ahead with an expensive plan to extend light rail north.

As other agencies rein in their budgets, RT is preparing to spend even more taxpayer moneyand expand a system that is already grossly overfunded, subsidized, underutilized and plagued by crime.

While ground was broken in October for the "Green Line" to the airport, RT estimates it will be 10 years before it is operational. The line will originate at the proposed regional transportation center and the downtown railyard, continue north along Seventh Street before reaching Township 9 – a future development of 3,000 residences, offices and retail. This line is expected to begin operating in November, according to RT.

RT general manager Mike Wiley has said, "Better to get these projects in place now. It will be more expensive later."

Wiley's comment suggests he has expertise in bureaucracy but not in basic economics.

Regional Transit has been mismanaged since the 1970s. That's when a well-balanced board of directors – composed of private citizens and public representatives – was replaced with a board consisting solely of City Council members and county supervisors, leaving no citizen or business representation on the board.

While RT's budget has exponentially increased since the 1970s, ridership has not. As the board began to change, politicians added mandatory social planning to public transit, creating mandatory government subsidies, eventually turning RT into a rolling welfare system for those who can't and won't pay for their ride.

there's more....

RT a drain on the county's taxpayers

read the whole piece at this link, and be sure to read the crazy comments at The Bee online. People are nuts.
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A Streetcar Named Deserted

Posted by Katy Grimes on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 12:33:56 PM

Sacramento residents keep hearing and reading about how ridership on Regional Transit’s Light Rail is up – regardless of the fact that city residents rarely see a train with many people on it. I refer to any passing light rail train as A Streetcar Named Deserted.

In 1974 Regional Transit took over Sacramento’s Blue Bus system. Ridership had been strong in the 1950’s and 1960’s, but then, in the 1970’s, politicians added mandatory social planning to transit, creating mandatory subsidies, eventually turning Regional Transit into a rolling welfare system for those who can’t and won’t pay for their transit. For everyone else, it’s full fare. Subsidies should never be 100% but the county Health and Human Services department (welfare) hands out free bus passes to their “clients,” just in case they use the bus to go looking for a job.
 
read the rest of the article at The Sacramento Citizen: A Streetcar Named Deserted
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