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I love Philly, but it's not nearly at the level of Chicago and Boston in terms of public transportation.
I'd give Boston the edge for it's subway system compared to Philly, but that's honestly it. Having much experience with both MBA and SEPTA, they are extremely comparable systems (although ridership is higher in Boston, the actual extent of infrastructure is very similar).
Certainly, I can see someone giving an edge to Boston overall, but to claim it's "on an other level" with Chicago does not seem apt.
WMATA is having severe issues and the fare increases and budgetary problems are only part of it. Too many incidents causing service delays and declining ridership are what's necessitating fare increases. Google it to see.
I can tell you that NYC, Boston, SF and Chicago definitely have the same issues, with endless budget crises, contract issues with workers and the like.
Some poster claimed that Philly had no such issues, but highly unlikely. PA actually spends far less on transit than other states, and SEPTA has pretty deteriorated infrastructure and outdated fare payment. Probably every transit agency on earth has these general budgetary issues.
I can tell you that NYC, Boston, SF and Chicago definitely have the same issues, with endless budget crises, contract issues with workers and the like.
Some poster claimed that Philly had no such issues, but highly unlikely. PA actually spends far less on transit than other states, and SEPTA has pretty deteriorated infrastructure and outdated fare payment. Probably every transit agency on earth has these general budgetary issues.
I more or less was getting at the fact that SEPTA is finally being viewed as a valuable asset and funding has increased pretty substantially for the capital project improvements. It is all just focused on fixing up the existing infrastructure for the future.
I just had a couple of minutes. If you look closely at other mass transit systems, the guy actually has a point about WMATA. It appears that there expenses are going up 6% each year and revenues are only increasing by 1%. That's not good. MBTA has almost a $2B budget (compared to SEPTA's $1.3B) but MBTA is paying nearly $200M for debt services alone (about $60M for SEPTA).
Granted we are still only 2 and a half years removed from one of our wonderful congressman losing his wig over funding increases and calling it welfare lol.. There is no denying the positive economic impact that a good transit system can provide.
Hong Kong, Tokyo, Osaka, Singapore, and Taipei actually have profitable systems. Hong Kong MTR system had a $2 billion profit last year.
With the ridership numbers in NYC you could make MTA profitable, but instead its a state jobs program.
OK, but those aren't really transit systems in the way we're discussing. They're private, for-profit entities that happen to run transit, and that derive their earnings from real estate.
There would be no possible way to make the MTA profitable in the same manner, since the MTA generally doesn't control the land and cannot profit from transit investments. Plus there's the pesky issue of paying people decent wages and following regulations. Hong Kong has insanely low wages and basically no workplace rules. It's the purest capitalist entity on earth.
Some poster claimed that Philly had no such issues, but highly unlikely. PA actually spends far less on transit than other states, and SEPTA has pretty deteriorated infrastructure and outdated fare payment. Probably every transit agency on earth has these general budgetary issues.
Of course SEPTA still isn't immune to challenges, either, but I don't know where you're getting the idea that PA doesn't spend much on transit. As of 2009, the amount spent by the state on public transit was the fourth highest in the US (behind NY, CA, and MA) and very much in the Top 10 per capita:
As thedirtypirate referenced, PA passed Act 89 in recent years, which will raise an additional $500 million annually when it is completely phased in within 5 years. This definitely makes Pennsylvania one of the few public transit leaders compared to the vast majority of the US.
Lol did you google all the others too? DC is not unique in that aspect and still top tier with Chicago/Boston, after NY of course.
Out of that top tier WMATA is the only agency reducing service, losing riders, and raising fares to compensate. I consider that unique. It's well know to be poorly managed and many of their recent issues like the smoke incident that killed a rider, the blown transformer that is now cutting service, the multiple rider and employee fatalities, etc were completely avoidable.
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