High Speed Trains And Stupid Solutions

The feds, since 1991, have had a plan  of creating high speed rail corridors throughout the nation including one between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and since Obama took office $8 billion has been shoved into this opium-pipe dream with billions more expected although that hope may change come November.

Texas and the Sourth outside Florida haven’t gotten much of this loot for some strange reason albeit Pennsylvania’s not much ahead nabbing a paltry $25.6 million for the Keystone Corridor project.

Grand schemes like this would be great if resources were infinite and the simple building of it was the hardest and most expensive part. The real problems, however, start after the tracks are laid and the shiny new stations open, namely getting people to use it. Remember these things are being built not with the jaundiced eye of someone weighing the risks to his own time and money against the benefits of possible future rewards, but in accordance with starry visions of bureaucrats and trained academic parrots who have literally nothing to lose in the construction.

So the only way people are going to use this thing is by discouraging them — them not including the bureaucrats and parrots — from using alternatives namely the planes and automobile parts of the story.

Hmmmm, you think that might happen?

A much better way of improving transportation efficiency would be to use that money for our highways. That $8 billion could turn a whole lot of  turnpikes into freeways eliminating artificial traffic bottlenecks and general headaches. Or if construction is what one desires, there are plenty of places where the money could be used to improve traffic flow cutting commuter time and saving gasoline. 

Consider Route 322 in Delaware County, Pa. Coming north from I-95 it hits Route 1 in Concord, follows that road south for a couple of miles until it reaches Route 202 at a massive bottleneck of an intersection where it then follows 202 north into Chester County before getting exclusive use of  blacktop.

What if the some of the money Obama wants to use on choo choos was spent sending Route 322 directly into Route 202 with a cloverleaf at Route 1. If the money was properly used those whose land would be needed for the project would have big smiles on their faces after negotiations for it, and dollars to donuts say more time and gas would be saved than a bullet train to Pittsburgh.

And situations like this can be found throughout the nation. But cars mean freedom whereas trains mean control.

And this does not mean that trains are bad or that passenger trains don’t have their purpose. Something else to ponder — America’s freight railroads are owned and operated by private companies. In Europe, they are owned and operated by government. In the 1950s, the percent of freight shipped was about the same. Today, about 38 percent of freight is shipped on railroads in the U.S. compared to 8 percent in the European Union.  

Maybe to make passenger trains viable again, we should get the government out of Amtrak.

SEPTA’s Going To Party Like It’s 7-1-2010

SEPTA’s fare hike took effect today with the the price of a token rising ten cents to$1.55; a weekly transit pass jumping from $20.75 to$22; and transfers for subway, bus and trolleys being hiked 25 centsto $1.

Also off-peak discounts were ended for regional rail.

Base fares on buses, subways and trolleys remain $2.

Meanwhile it has been revealed that SEPTA officials have been enjoying thousand-dollar company lunches at places like Fountain Restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel in Center City.

The trolley and bus drivers are generally pretty decent people who work honest hours for what they get but has it occurred to anyone else that management has no real incentive to grow the largely tax-funded authority. In fact, it seems, that if ridership were to significantly increase they would, well, have to work harder, and why would they want to do that if they are taking lunches at swank restaurants now?

They are clearly not trying to grow. How much marketing do you see for SEPTA? Maybe a rewritten press release in the dino media but not much. If you should have moved into the area, did you ever get a direct-mail piece describing what SEPTA could do for you and how to use the system and get discounts? Maybe free passes to sample the service?

Of course not.

More riders would mean more people to deal with which would mean more headaches. It’s much easier to be able to leave the cell phone off at catered affairs.

A Route 101 Rail Story

I watched SEPTA tractors drag a length of rail that was a few hundred yards long from the direction of Media towards 69th Street over the Route 101 trolley tracks. Traffic was stopped for several minutes at Springfield Road and, I suspect, at other crossings. The rail was clearly used but If I understood the workmen right it will be replace some rail near Burmont Road in Upper Darby.

They said the trolleys won’t be running until August.

I have been hearing great things about the drivers of the buses that are being used to fill in for the trolleys, and say what you want  the buses are a heck of a lot quieter.

SEPTA Sues Goldman Sachs Over Pension Fund Performance

Well the shoe was eventually going to drop.

Concerns over the state of SEPTA’ s pension fund has caused it to sue Goldman Sachs Group Inc. regarding the way it was managed.

SEPTA is claiming Goldman Sachs pays it’s executives too much. SEPTA wants Goldman to make up the value in lost stock holdings.

The fund was worth $640 million at the time of September’s strike — down from $719 million in June 2008 but up from $471 million in March.

The suit was filed Tuesday in Delaware Chancery Court.

Wonder why SEPTA didn’t have a Pennsylvania-based firm manage the fund? What’s the moral difference between going to Delaware for a fund manager or going to Delaware for a bottle of wine?

Something to think about.

SEPTA Workers Watch Your Pensions

During the SEPTA strike I sympathized with Transport Workers Union Local 234 chief Willie Brown’s late demand for a forensic audit of the organization’s pension fund — a demand which eventually disappeared from the table.

Well, the Commonwealth Foundation is reporting that SEPTA’s two largest pension fund (SAM and City Transit) were funded at 71% and 61% of accrued liabilities – underfunded even by government standards – as of June 2007, which is, of course, before the massive decline in the market which hit all pension plans hard.

So SEPTA workers fear for your retirements. Taxpayers fear for your wallets.

Pa. Ponders The Wisdom Of Letting Public Workers Strike

The grasping and gratuitous strike by members of Transport Workers Union Local 234 bringing a stop to bus, trolley and subway service in Southeastern Pennsylvania for a week has Harrisburg considering whether the state should remain one of 10 that allows strikes by some public employees such as transit workers..

If the proposed strike prohibitions were extended to public school teachers, a very real easing of the property tax burden would begin as contracts began to expire.

Regarding SEPTA, I’m still wondering about that forensic audit of the pension plan that was a big issue for a day then disappeared. If I were a TWU rank and filer, I think I’d be a tad concerned about my retirement plans.

Looks Like No SEPTA Audit

Not a peep in today’s Philadelphia Inquirer follow-up to the ending of the SEPTA strike about whether there will be a forensic audit of the pension fund about which Transport Workers Union Local 234 chief Willie Brown made such a big deal about over the weekend, and which the Inky duly reported.

Was he just blowing smoke? If so why didn’t SEPTA call him on it since the union was offering to pay for the audit?

Or did Willie know he had a nice card to play and SEPTA did what it took to to keep him from playing it?

Which leads us to ask why would it be such a nice card to play?

More things to make you go hmmmm.

And why didn’t the Inky reporters ask the obvious follow up?

 

Looks Like No SEPTA Audit

Looks Like No SEPTA Audit

Transit Strike To End — Will There Be An Audit?

Today’s Philadelphia Inquirer reported that SEPTA has reached an agreement with Transport Workers Union Local 234 about ending the six-day old strike involving trolley, bus and subway workers. Not a peep in the article as to if SEPTA consented to a forensic audit of the pension fund which was reported to be the big sticking point in Sunday’s paper.

So Why Won’t SEPTA OK Audit?

I’m not inclined to be sympathetic to Transport Workers Union Local 234 which is screwing up life for tens of thousands in the Philadelphia area by keeping SEPTA’s trolleys subways and buses from running — and that does not even count the damage to the environment, please think of the trees — especially since the average salary for the local is $52,000 along with bennies in this economy, but the sticking point in getting them back to work appears to be a demand for a forensic audit of the pension fund which SEPTA is unwilling to do.

The union has offered to pay for the audit.

It is something that makes you go hmmmmmm.

Screwups Hail Obama

Screwups Hail Obama — So this is what we get for the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act? A $3,000 green sign and  a solution to a problem that should never have existed and matters worse — at least with regard to things like convenience, traffic and pollution — than it was before a certain government agency tried to fix things.

The sign, which also has an orange top depicting a man digging a ditch and the words “Putting America To Work” went up Sept. 23 at the Springfield Road stop for SEPTA’s Route 101 trolley in Springfield, Pa. SEPTA, btw, never bothered to consider PennDOT’s concerns before starting the project which involved installing traffic-safety gates, removing the traffic-safety gates and changing a decades-old scheme so commuters now must cross the busy highway at least once per round trip, at a spot, mind you, where it is illegal to do so.

And why does Obama think that Americans being forced to earn a living digging ditches is somehow progress? I’d like to see him dig ditches.\

Screwups Hail Obama