KD news story about PAT competition (Pittsburgh: employment, transfer, income)

[raubre]

I can't find anything on KDKAs website, but apparently I missed a news story about possible competition for the Port Authority. Can anyone post a link or give me some info what it was about?

Tx

[gg]

What about this?

Lawmaker pushes transit competition in Allegheny County - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

[BrianTH]

I'd be fine if the PUC instead of PAT was authorized to approve other transit applications. But this looks to me like a case of some state legislators trying to claim a largely meaningless change will address the finding crisis they have created.

[raubre]

KDKA finally posted it. Thanks

Private Companies Could Give Port Authority Competition « CBS Pittsburgh

[gg]

Seems to me the story is old news and nothing will ever happen.

[BrianTH]

Yeah, it is a scam.

Concerned about the fact that the state cutting PAT's funding means you are losing your bus route? Don't worry! Mike Turzai is sure that private operators are on their way to fill the gap.

And please don't think about things like that PAT is cutting the routes where their financial numbers were worst. Or that Mike Turzai is apparently just relying on his intuition about what private operators will do, with no actual private operators stating they are interested in offering these services. Or that his big plan to encourage private operators is to let the state PUC review their applications, even though PAT routinely approves applications anyway.

Nope, PAT riders, rest assured Turzai has your back. There is no reason whatsover to be concerned about the fact he is soon going to be proposing making the cuts to PAT's state funding permanent (and maybe deeper).

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by raubre

KDKA finally posted it. Thanks

Private Companies Could Give Port Authority Competition « CBS Pittsburgh

I hope it happens. I think it's awesome. We need regional bus service for lateral trips. For example, the North Hills needs a bus company that meets the needs of moving people around the North Hills. I hate that our bus lines only run into town. I have so many other places I'd rather go, and I'm not riding into town to transfer, making a 20 minute trip 2 hours. If we had a better public transportation, I'd consider giving up our extra cars. We have three.

[Blackbeauty212]

Privatized Transit will never work, there's no way they can turn a profit unless every trip is packed to the gills and standard fare is around 5$ and yet still it may not be profitable.....PAT exists because of Private Companies Failure.

[feanix]

What makes PATs position particularly troubling, for me, is given the unrest of the rest of the world, coupled with our economy, and current state debts you would think that PAT would be getting more attention then it could handle (and not just when it's budget comes around)!

I would think in this current climate people (whether or not dependent upon it) would not just want it to survive, but thrive. It is a fairly large transit system and, while not perfect, is far superior to many other cities of relative (and even larger) size. It is a huge player in what keeps the city moving forward, promoting employment opportunities amongst the lower income, conserving energy, and helping local businesses (if people aren't spending their money on getting to work, they can spend it in the community). It helps everyone whether or not we directly use it.

I don't believe in necessarily eliminating PAT, but I do support allowing private companies to come in and fill in the gaps they feel exist. I'm a huge supporter of doing the necessary changes to help the transit system in place survive as in-tact as possible, even if it means a huge restructuring of routes/services/ownership.

[BrianTH]

Unfortunately, public transit has been drawn into the partisan Culture Wars, and that means a lot of people simply aren't interested in hearing about local transportation benefits (which go beyond just riders themselves), economic benefits, environmental benefits, energy and national security benefits, and so on. They also don't want to hear about recent changes made by PAT or possible plans for improvements in the future. They just want to talk about drivers being compensated too much, and shutting down PAT so private companies can take over.

Incidentally, I think it is very important to note that to my knowledge, there isn't much standing in the way of private companies offering transit services right now--if they want to. There just isn't much interest in doing so outside very limited circumstances (e.g., various shuttle services, paratransit, and such), because in most cases it isn't going to be profitable. So the notion that we just have to open some gate and a bunch of private companies will rush in to take over for PAT is really a scam being perpetuated by those trying to get away with cutting PAT's funding and leaving a bunch of people without service.

I also think it is important to note that public-private partnerships (PPPs) are another matter entirely. But PPPs have that explicit public component to the partnership, and usually the public agency is providing some funding, or services, or network access, or so on, to the partnership, along with determining the overall shape of the project. That's a very different scenario from removing the public agency from the scene entirely, and then hoping some private company will emerge out of nowhere to take over.