Terrell says that the suburban lines serve the "cream runs". That would depend on whether the routes in question are operated under contract from or be subsidized by Metro Transit.
In order to skim the cream in an unsubsidized environment, the company would have to be able to make a profit. How would they be doing this? Lower wages and benefits than MT? Higher fares? Could these private companies come in and start a new Lake Street Line or are they prohibited by law from doing that? In general, long express routes do not have the lowest subsidy per passenger trip. That's because of the long empty drive in the non- peak direction. The routes with the lowest subsidy per passenger trip are most likely 16 (University) and 21 (Lake Street). I don't have the Sector 5 restructuring study book in hand, but you can see the figures in there. Why do these have the lowest subsidies? Because there are lots of shorter trips, with people getting on no matter which direction the bus is going. Let's be frank, if some competing transit operation wanted to run along a Metro Transit route and skim the cream, what does that mean? MT still loses money on that cream route. If some company wanted to step in and run unsubsidized buses or mini-vans or limos on the Woodbury route, it would be saving the taxpayers money. Look to the lrt spending. $715 million spent on one route that may perhaps carry 12,500 daily round trips in 2020, 7,500 of which would have been riding the bus anyway (from the DEIS). $440 million would have doubled the number of buses in operation, including new bus garages. That would have done lots for the other 200 routes. Of course, doubling the number of buses doesn't double the number of riders; nobody seems to know how much ridership would go up. If it increased ridership by 40%, that would be more than 45,000 new daily round trips. Let's see, spending 38% less gives us 9 times the increased transit ridership. And don't forget the likely increased spending for park and ride lots because, as met council's Peggy Leppik says, they are worried about it flopping. Even though all of the ridership and financial projections were made knowing that there were not supposed to be park and rides in Minneapolis and there was no warehouse district stop (only two blocks from Nicollet Mall at a cost of how many hundred thousand dollars?) Don't forget the new park and ride station going up a few hundred feet from the so-called Bloomington corporate stop, at a cost of how many hundred thousand dollars? Somehow, I think that they could have walked. I work there and the distance from where I park in the parking lot to the building entrance is similar to the distance between the two stations. This one is located between the Megamall and the corporate stop at about 25th Avenue. Haven't looked to see if it's on the on-line map. Visit www.EffectiveTransit.org The Independent Unsubsidized Voice of Citizens for Effective Transit in the Twin Cities * lrt isn't a potato chip, you can stop at just one * Bruce Gaarder Highland Park Saint Paul MN [EMAIL PROTECTED] REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
