Good news for the bus riders of Orange county:
OCTA And Teamsters Reach Agreement
To Increase Wages And Benefits By 14.7%
For All Coach Operators
The OCTA and the Teamsters reached a tentative agreement on a three-year compensation package early Saturday morning, and the weeklong bus strike could end in a matter of days.
The terms include a 14.7% pay hike.
NTD data report:
2006 Salary, Wages and Benefits $129,515,093
14.7% more is $19 million.
2006 Fare Revenues $47,507,775
Fares would need to rise 40% to cover the new contract. At that Fares cover less than 20% of costs anyway. We worry about FBs ripping us off? They got nothing on this nations grossly inefficient taxpayer funded boondoggle transit agencies.
18 comments:
1st
Murst Loozers!@!!!!!
Here is why I have not been to CHC but once.
just postin. not agreein.
#
268. Caseys Sex Life
July 15th, 2007 at 8:54 am
Letter to CHC -
Just wanted to let everyone know that I was “banned for life” for expressing my views and opinions in a rational manner. The First Amendment goes out the window on CHC, it looks like. My posts towards Duane were not obscene in the least, but I am the one that got booted? Immediately after he said, “Screw you, b**** ” to me? Give me a break. Duane LeGate is in business to make money - he is not in business for “philanthropic” reasons. If Tracy prefers to boot those that oppose her views so be it - at least you would never hear me on the air screaming the word “c*nt” over and over, completely out of control - and she thinks it is ME that has a problem??? Her posts are vile, obscene, derogatory and inflammatory, but yet she will be allowed to always be in the right on CHC??? To the extreme of banning the other regular posters, who are the ONLY reason this forum will survive - whatever happened to free speech?? My guy fighting over in Iraq would be so proud that an uneducated person such as Tracy is allowed to govern the beliefs and viewpoints of other fellow Americans …………
Oh and Tracy - I will remind everyone at least several times a day just how narrow minded and vacuous you really are….
Rob, mass transit is a great idea. But it will always have to be subsidize by public funds. It just cannot financially support itself. Is there a profitable mass transit system anywhere in the US?
Oh, sorry, did not mean to thread jack.
Mass transit (rail)is the biggest oil guzzler in the US, I have read somewhere.
Sac RE,
There are no profitable public transit systems in the US. There are lots of profitable transit systems however. Even some airlines which are a form of transit are they not? But word spliting aside UD public transit systems are absolute money sinks. The very best barely manage to cover half their operating expenses and that only with some amazing accounting tricks that include things like mantainence, insurance and retirement costs as capital expenditures. Transit costs about 4 times as much per passenger mile as POV travel. Even transit advocates are unwilling to pay anything near the cost of the public services they provide.
S'Okay, FMW. There's a huge Casey thread a comin' later today but this is the top thread so minor interruptions are no big deal. I've never been to CHC but to restate for here: I can't ban anyone and have had little reason to anyway. Even soem dood has posted since that ugly spat a few days ago where he just started going off on me personally.
That said, I'm not so sure the agressively questioning of motives is ever going to be a profitable inquiry.
There, wait for the next Casey thread here and in the mean time listen to what looks to be an informative transit economics discussion.
exception proves the rule?
This interesting opinion. Note the last lines.
Commenting on these data, Leroy Demery notes that "Large operators earn profits from extremely high peak-period volumes. Smaller operators (monorails in particular, but streetcar systems as well) manage to collect a much higher average fare per passenger than US operators could, and therefore turn a profit despite unimpressive (i.e., unimpressively high) unit operating costs ."
Note also the 'Operating Surplus ("Profit")' construction.
"Amazing Accounting Tricks", anyone? That's AAT™.
aack!!
Here in London, I pay 160 pounds per month (that's $320 genuine Yankee greenbacks) for my daily 28 minute train ride into central London.
And the train companies claim they can't make any money, and want to raise the fares 20-40%!
Pretty soon ridin' in the back of a Bentley driven by a dude named "James" is gonna be cheaper than the train...
thpptt!!
S_t_C
wagga,
The Coast RTA gets 9% thate's n-i-n-e percent of their revenue from fares. The rest is subsidy. Some profit. Here's their own budget:
http://www.golymo.com/Budget%20Presentation%202007.pdf
Leaving the airlines out of the conversation, how should we as taxpayers/citizens deal with this huge financial burden? I believe the only way that mass transit can be made anything even close to breakeven is a complete shift in the US mentality. We have to get away from our cars and jobs being 20 to 50 miles away. That seems completely unfeasable on the West Coast. Maybe it takes blowing up oil fields throughout the world, causing a huge increase in oil prices. I think the genie has been let out of the bottle. It's too late or too, too expensive to put the genie back.
Sputz,
You bet. The London trains have been relying on massive subsidies for a long time as well.
Look here for an eyeful:
http://www.publicpurpose.com/utx-lon.htm
Sac RE,
You have to understand that US Public Transit does not save energy. Switching modes private to public is even worse as the private journeys would be even less energy efficient as public transit journeys.
http://cta.ornl.gov/data/tedb26/Edition26_Full_Doc.pdf
2.6Mb of everything you need to know but transit advocates are afraid you'll find out.
Dawg, the answer is MONORAIL.
Seriously though, I recommend that the OCTA do what Houston Metro did in order to inflate the number of rail passengers:
The Texas Medical Center employs 73,500 people in dozens of densely-packed highrises. Most employees park in satellite parking lots, then take shuttle buses. They used to go directly to the building in which they work. It was relatively quick and painless.
Metro put in a rail line a few years ago on the west side of the TMC. Now shuttle operators first bus employees to two rail stations south of the TMC. Employees wait at the station, ride the train a short distance, get off, then hop on another shuttle bus. It takes them LONGER to get to work because they are no longer being dropped off directly at their building from the satellite lot.
Voila! Metro has thousands of captive rail patrons and can brag about increased ridership.
@Dawg
Re Coast: AAT™!
I didn't subscribe & read the whole article. My bad.
That said, I'm not so sure the agressively questioning of motives is ever going to be a profitable inquiry.
@ Alpha Dawg,
SOOOOO well said. I was here before CASEY and will be here with or with out his sideshow.
We live in such interesting times there are so many things to keep a watch over.
REIC imploding and making other markets sick
peak oil and the global oil grab
China
the USD crash
CODEX and the Dem's outlawing vitamins (true)
local planning and infrastructure
pork inside the beltway
property tax law (local but a mess)
Sub-prime implosion
anyway,
again, thanks and back to the thread topic,
I spoke to the CEO of a company that supplies 'back up energy' to hospitals and government buildings a few weeks ago and he told me that there is a modular nuclear reactor package) sitting outside of Sacramento, still packed and un-assembled, waiting for the POTUS to release through a bill that is, "sitting on his desk" awaiting his signature.
When this bill is enacted, and trains switch over to nuke power, then oil will tank to $40.00 a barrel. He reckons that Bosh Co. is protecting the oil croneys.
No way to verify, but an interesting situation.
Bush may not want the Nuclear Jeanie out of the bottle, geopolitically speaking.
@FMW
modular nuclear...?
Imagine working people getting a decent wages and benifits from a public agency. Shouldn't they be run like the private sector, where third world standards now prevail?
"Imagine working people getting a decent wages and benifits from a public agency. Shouldn't they be run like the private sector, where third world standards now prevail?"
OK by me. You want things changed? Force all elected officials and public employees onto the same pension and benefit plans as average workers. No more of this retire after 30 years at 52 with full salary bullshit.
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