You think its bad for PAT now, it's about to get A LOT WORSE! (Pittsburgh: fit in, gated)
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I agree with this wholeheartedly, but you fail to identify how the local pols have a "hand in this mess". .
Local pols can be blamed for the contracts that generated the legacy costs that are sinking PAT. I gotta believe that is more their mess than the state's mess.
I agree with this wholeheartedly, but you fail to identify how the local pols have a "hand in this mess". As was previously stated, the County is meeting it's promised funding obligations to PAT, at least for now, and the shortfall is entirely at the State level.
I think you tend to overestimate the ability of an urban, Democratic mayor getting on his soapbox to change anything in Harrisburg. There's probably a line of thinking that would suggest anything seen as "political grandstanding" could be counterproductive.
If blaming those at fault and not every politician for every problem is a "radical" point of view, consider me Robespierre.
And where are the local pols taking this fight to the state level, why are they sitting back, instead of putting heat on Corbett?
Again its not about the mayors message to harrisburg, its about him taking a stand, letting the Public (Not Harrisburg) know he's with them...Rally the Troops' if you will...Encourage the public and other pols we need to let Corbett know we will not stand for this.
But see again pols (doesnt matter the party) of today are self absorbed cowards, who's only goals are to keep their names from being associated with the negativity. They care less about actually looking out for the people who elected them. Even Onorato tried stay in the background until he was forced out from hiding by the local media.
Local pols can be blamed for the contracts that generated the legacy costs that are sinking PAT. I gotta believe that is more their mess than the state's mess.
Ofcourse there is....But as long as their are people like BrianTH and others who want to give pols passes unless they're the obvious culprits to the naked eye... It makes it very easy for pols to hide and keep out of the fray.
I'm in a very selfish mood today for some reason .
So I'm just looking at it from a purely financial perspective:
- PAT claims that the reason they are failing is because of lack of funding. That would be a logical reason for failure of any enterprise.
- PAT says that a big chunk of their costs is healthcare for current employees and pension plans for retired employees. Other problems are 3% raise for union employees and fuel costs. Recent 10% drop in ridership is also cited.
- to stay profitable PAT considers increasing rates, cutting costs, getting subsidies or a combination of the above.
- increasing rates will cause more customers to consider driving. This is an open market (one would hope anyway) where PAT rates and service have to compete with other options including Lenzner and driving. Higher rates will inevitably make more and more people think that the PAT hassle isn't worth the price. Of course there are others who would prefer PAT over other alternatives for a variety of other reasons. The question is what the majority (the public) will do.
- Cutting expenses is tough for PAT. Primarily because of union contracts. There is also not much they can do about rising fuel costs.
- Getting subsidies isn't going to be any easier in this economy.
All in all it looks to me like PAT is a poorly managed failing enterprise, which was unable to maintain a successful business model and is on track for a collapse. Such collapses happen every day, one company wins, another one looses. In case of transportation - car manufacturers, parking garages and gas stations won. At least for the time being. I also hope that Lenzner will benefit somewhat, but unlikely. Those businesses won because they were able to provide what the majority (the public) of customers currently want in terms of transportation including but not limited to convenience, quality of service and relative cost efficiency.
Is it bad for the region if public transportation as a service collapses? Absolutely (and this is coming from a person who currently does not rely on public transportation). Is it bad if PAT as an enterprise collapses? Not necessarily.
Perhaps some day PAT's failure will trigger a well regulated competition of multiple transportation companies which would be able to successfully compete with other means of transportation for their fair share of ridership. Even if this means that they would require some initial subsidies to get started. In my lifetime I have seen cases when most of public transportation was provided by several smaller bus companies to the point when the official transit authority pretty much dissolved. The service was extremely efficient and affordable. I could only dream that we had something like that in Pittsburgh.
Local pols can be blamed for the contracts that generated the legacy costs that are sinking PAT. I gotta believe that is more their mess than the state's mess.
A problem which the current local pols bear very little responsibility for and have absolutely no authority or means to remedy, due to State law.
The solution to this problem rests in Harrisburg. If people think there is more of a liklhood of getting it addressed by the State Legislature by have Luke and Dan hold press conferences and pound the podium, fine, I happen to not really agree, but in the end I think it's a minor point.
I thought the union and Onorato were meeting to see if they can agree on some concessions to lessen the burden of of the cuts. Whatever happened to this?
They couldn't reach an agreement, and everyone should feel free to blame the parties for that. But that was only going to be bandaid on the larger problem.
So what exactly is the solution to this mess? It seems as if everyone is looking to the State to bail out PAT with a dedicated funding stream. So the state comes through with a dedicated funding stream but it if it doesn't throw enough money off, what is next?
I'm in a very selfish mood today for some reason .
you're a suburbanite, your selfishness goes without saying.
The rest of your post indicates such a deep and complete lack of understanding about public policy that I'm sure there's little point in attempting to remedy it. Others can read the multiple PAT threads that have been produced to get a fuller sense of the argument.
In brief however, PAT is not a "business", government can borrow from the private sector but they have different goals and different measurements of success. The transportation "market" is a heavily subsidized one in many facets, thus warping it, making direct comparisons more complicated, not impossible. This notion of private competition within the "marketplace" answering our public transportation needs is pure fallacy.
I'm glad you recognize that the collapse of public transportation would be bad for the region. That is not always a ready concession by those of your ilk.
giving people of power a pass, which is exactly what you're doing...is no better.
But I'm not giving everyone with power a pass--I am targeting the people actually making the relevant decisions. You can blame the Queen of England for PAT's current crisis, which may get you UK-anarchist street cred, but otherwise that is just wasting your time and won't accomplish anything.
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Blaming everyone does not equate to blaming no-one, that's a radical view on your part.
No, that is how politics works. Corbett and his crew won't care if you blame everyone else for what they are doing, because that means you won't support anyone who opposes them. Generally, your attitude serves the interests of the most cynical politicians, because they know that no matter what they personally do to f' things up, you are going to blame everyone else as well.
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politicians will listen when they know they're a** is on the line
Why will Corbett believe his a** is on the line if you are off criticizing local politicians? He'll just laugh and realize you are now politically irrelevant as far as he is concerned.
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Again the mayor may not have much power in solving PAT's problem, but he has a powerful voice of the region, and can come out and make a stand not supporting what Corbett is doing...But again you give him a pass because he not directly the culprit...
Come on, Corbett couldn't care less what ANY local Democrat has to say, particularly a City politician. He gets no meaningful votes from the City, so why should he care?
Seriously, THIS is how these guys think they can get away with this nonsense. They implement radical policies, and the people on the other side start pointing fingers at each other, and then they laugh at our inability to confront them.
The rest of your post indicates such a deep and complete lack of understanding about public policy...
In brief however, PAT is not a "business"...
Ah... this is just an indication that you have never seen any successful alternatives. And that's unfortunate. I suggest you start travelling world wide for an extended time to get some fresh ideas.
Public transportation doesn't have to be and is not always a public policy. PAT became a business the moment it started competing for ridership with private businesses. It failed as such.
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...those of your ilk.
This is an interesting statement. Care to elaborate?
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