News Mar 29, 2012 at 4:00 am

Could TriMet Have Avoided Some of Its Budget Cuts?

Comments

1
The irony, a city very close that only has one single light rail line and tons of bus service is taking BIGGER cuts than TriMet. TriMet is taking heat for this and that, but they've managed their budget better than most agencies in the area. There are however lots of solutions, but cutting capital investment on things that will save the agency tons of money down the road in operational costs (which is what is currently the real question of cost) will hurt us 10x over if we start planning for yesterday instead of tomorrow.

Seattle (that other city in question) has taken huge cuts because the simple fact is, cities are mostly responsible for their operational budgets and not as much of the capital expenditures. Seattle is now suffering much more than Portland with service cuts. They're forced into 2-4x as many cuts, many less frequent availabilities now, and more. They have barely a single line that actually runs at 17 minute or less headways, while Portland & TriMet has managed to keep a number of the routes here at decent headways.

The fact is, the light rail investment, even with the egregious investments in things that are NOT tracks and equipment (like art, sidewalks, mitigation and other things) will actually provide the area with vastly greater returns than not. Yes, the area is suffering cuts, the white house has done almost nothing to fill the gaps, and cities have voted against stop gap measures. In addition the citienzry is generally against the greedy tactics of TriMet AND the Union in their pithy arguments against each other. But the fact of the matter is, America and Portland included is going to have to do with less hand outs. Less road money, less transit money, less bridge money, less economic activity, and other issues for some time.

We built the problem, and we're gonna have to just deal with it.
2
Adron you have a good point but Seattle has a larger metropolitan area and population. Doesn't that factor in? Additionally I think you can argue they have a better freeways and side streets in terms of conditions and commuting. The street structure in this town freaking sucks!
3
To clarify a little: I didn't mean to say there's anything wrong with ODOT giving money to TriMet. That's just fine. My concern is that TriMet might find itself always being pressured to put up a little more money for rail ... a little more ... a little more ... to unlock big capital grants from state and feds. The agency is just in too much trouble to spare any of it's operating revenue for construction.
4
Ultimately, the issue is that they are spreading things too thin and the city needs both decent and affordable rail/bus service.

Bus and rail service saves the region a lot of money, without the max there would have been either massive (and costly) expansion of the freeway system which would have been difficult or just constant gridlock.

Personally, I think it would be worth it to levy a temporary tax on businesses to stabilize the budget or make the Trimet salary tax more progressive (add brackets to it). The Portland area is actually relatively well now, and certain it's business community could suffer 10 or 12 million in extra taxes since they definitely like to micro-managing everyone else.

Personally, I think the Columbia cross project should be downsidized to 3/3 lanes with light rail and Oregon's contribution should be focused on improving transit within the city, possible with the introduction of a express/rapid bus feeder system into the MAX.

The streetcar is pretty much paid with BID money anyway (and it legitimately subsidizes the businesses near the lines), it is a non-issue especially since the lake oswego expansion was killed.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.