Metro wants an extra $100 million
This certainly takes some nerve:
Metro wants to spend an additional $104 million on its Main Street light rail line to almost double the number of trains and fix costly problems it blames on construction errors.
Metropolitan Transit Authority president and CEO Frank Wilson laid out his wish list to the agency's board Thursday, shortly after releasing statistics that show surging rail ridership but decreased numbers of bus riders and overall customers.
[snip]
The big-ticket item in Wilson's presentation, which has not been scheduled for a vote, is the purchase of 15 more rail cars for about $58 million.
"It's the happy price of success," he said. "It happened a lot sooner than we expected. We're running 18 cars a day now — every car every day."
More cars are needed, Wilson said, "to carry the loads we're getting and also be able to do scheduled maintenance. In a couple of years, these cars are going to need significant overhauls, and it will take us a couple of years to get the (additional) cars delivered."
Barry Klein, president of the Houston Property Rights Association, said he found it puzzling that Metro was claiming higher ridership to justify buying more rail cars.
Klein, who opposed the rail line, said Metro is carrying fewer riders on bus and rail combined than it used to carry on buses alone.
[snip]
In May 2004, Metro changed several routes to make them connect to the rail line, a move critics say inflates the numbers of MetroRail boardings.
But Wilson said the decline in total riders is bottoming out. "We've stopped the bleeding while we've made drastic changes," he said.
[snip]
Metro also lists $16 million more in improvements it says are needed but were omitted to keep costs down. Nearly $10 million would go for fueling and maintenance facilities near the line's south end.
Amazing! First off, thanks to Rad Sallee and Mike Snyder for a very informative story that presents the opposing view.
But, let's translate that big bucks request by Metro Big Frank Wilson: "We cut corners building the 7.5 miles of downtown light rail; we have dismantled bus and trolley service in order to feed the light rail; we don't have a consistent method for collecting fares so we can't talk about "paid ridership"; we are bleeding passengers systemwide even though Houston's population has increased; and now we'd like an extra $100 million to help fix our mess."
Edd Hendee (KSEV-700) talked to a caller this morning who said she had recently received a call from Ipsos wanting to talk about Houston mass transit. Edd said this is part of that $250,000 Metro is spending to study its declining ridership problem.
Edd also pointed out that most people who can afford their own transportation don't WANT to take mass transit! That's just a fact of life. And as Metro continues to offer transit that is more inconvenient and takes longer, people will continue to give up on bus and rail.
As an aside, since Metro is begging for more money to fix its messes, I'd be curious to know how much Metro's fancy schmancy new Lee P. Brown Administration building cost, and how much Metro executives are paid, including bonuses.
RELATED: The Boondoggle Files (PubliusTX), Chronicle's light rail archive (be sure to keep scrolling down for some very enlightening stories)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 05/20/05 08:33 AM | Print |
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