Just received this alarming two-sentence email from the TriMet newsroom:
TriMet faces $27 million in cuts for [Fiscal Year]11 budget; will be discussed tomorrow at 10:15 a.m. No other details available tonight.
Thanks for the details, TriMet. These cuts could be much larger than the ones the agency underwent last year. In 2009/2010, TriMet made up for a $13 million budget gap by slashing free bus service from Fareless Square, freezing staff salaries, eliminating 139 jobs and cutting five bus lines, among other changes.
What would go if the agency cut twice as deeply? Or maybe they’d consider replacing poetry on the bus with ads on the bus?
Previous reporting on TriMet’s budget here.
Awesome. How about we stop worrying about streetcars and trams and other beee-ol-sheet and spend the money on keeping bus service?
@Blabby
Because the Federal Government is kicking down around $75 million for the streetcar and the state is dropping $20 million of its own on it. It’s money that has to be spent on this “bee-ol-sheet” and can’t be spent on keeping up the bus lines.
You do realize the streetcar isn’t owned by Trimet, and the extension they’re building at the moment doesn’t use a cent of Trimet’s budget, right? Idiot.
Well we could all go back to driving cars. HAHA I had to sell my car! Joke’s on me, I guess.
Stu, snack on my ass crack.
I am aware that Trimet isn’t paying to construct the streetcar, but was under the impression that Trimet operates it. Looks like the City operates it. Whoever is spending money on it is wasting said money.
And what happens when Uncle Sugar’s streetcar $ runs out?
They cut the streetcar lines.
Aside from being unreliable, public transportation is not a revenue generating project.
@Blabby: Yes, but the streetcar operating costs are less per passenger than the bus line it replaced. If we replaced more bus lines with streetcars, TriMet would actually save money.
That would involve making nearly every thoroughfare train tracks. Good luck with that.
Might help if Trimet stopped spending 2000 on a trash can?
“Whoever is spending money on it is wasting said money.”
I’ve got $10 that says someone can dig up that same quote from someone talking about building the MAX.
D: “That would involve making nearly every thoroughfare train tracks. Good luck with that.”
Thank you for the support. I’m working on the streets in N Portland myself.
Matt D, there’s no way that streetcars are cheaper once construction costs are factored in. And the biggest issue is they’re not at all flexible. Buses can go wherever you want them too.
Streetcars are just completely redundant and stupid. You like them for ideological reasons, not practical reasons.
Fuuuuuck there goes more bus lines, specifically the ones coming from the outer reaches of the area and the early morning/late night/weekend busses. Yeah, the people who rely the most on Trimet (those that don’t work M-F 9-5 downtown) are the ones who get burned. I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve had to turn down at work because of the current schedules. The $86/month bus pass SURE pays for itself….
“Stu, snack on my ass crack.”
Now these’re fightin’ words if I ever did see ’em! I’ve got a sawbuck on the guy who won’t have his hands occupied with all that edible ass crack.
Also, in an attempt to elevate the general discourse from ass crack snackery to citywide monetary highjackery (and other non-words that vaguely rhyme), what is Tri-Met’s pre-cut budget? $27 million seems like a hefty chunk to lose, but it becomes insignificant if the company is pulling down cash like Greg “Did you see my wang too?” Oden pulls down rebounds in the imaginary world occupied entirely by Blazers fans, millions of smiling cartoon honeybees and bong resin.
(That’s right! I can be political AND topical! Take that Matt “Yes Greg, I did” Davis!”)
@Blabby: Yes they are. But even if they weren’t, the people along the routes are lining up to build them by taxing themselves, when was the last time you saw that with a bus? The “lack of flexibility” is exactly why people like them: They aren’t going to up and change the route next week, unlike the rest of the system.
Ridership doubles or triples when they replace bus lines with streetcar lines, they’ve seen that at many cities across the US. The streetcar may not have any practical benefits, (I mean, besides multidoor boarding, faster ADA boarding, smoother ride, quieter engines, faster acceleration, reliable routes, longer vehicles, wider vehicles, longer vehicle life, longer right of way life, better alignment at stops, and probably some other things I can’t think of at the moment,) and maybe people just like them because they look cool, but may I ask, do you drive around in a 1993 Honda Civic, or do you have a nicer car? A 1993 Civic gets you where you are going and they are pretty cheap to buy/maintain, so why do you insist on driving something better? (Some of our buses were made in 1993 by the way. TriMet maintenance wins awards for reliability all the time, most cities can’t keep buses on the road longer than about 12 years without road service calls dropping into the unacceptable range.)
Buses still have more flexibility, though.
I’ve never seen the streetcar more than 20% full? I can jog faster than it, also.
You are justifying a service based on popularity from going a few miles? How does the streetcar scale? Why aren’t we seeing the streetcar replace all roads? If it’s a magical transportation method, shouldn’t everyone want one on their block? Even, say, 5% of buses? Can you name a major city where streetcars travel more road than buses?
Now I’m not arguing for the merits of Mass Transit. It’s obvious we have to shuttle people here and there, and I do use the airport MAX quite a bit, but the streetcar going from the two of the richest areas of the city to each other?
Gee, I wonder why?
Sarah, good luck on replacing the poetry on the bus with ads on the bus. I’ve become convinced that no matter the city, the same exact incompetents are in charge of procuring advertising for bus and rail lines, and they’re too busy playing World of Warcraft on company time to care. (The “Poetry In Motion” swindle is as bad as the increasingly generic PBS pledge drive, because it’s the same exact poetry whether it’s Dallas or Portland. I won’t even get into rail station ads still promoting St. Patrick’s Day festivities from 2006 or “coming soon” movie promos for films that disappeared from the DVD racks months ago. It’s painful enough to see banners on buses for strip clubs that went out of business in the middle of last year.)
Oh and I’m probably a slice of a part of the problem. This is the first year in a while I haven’t gotten a $900+/year bus pass. I walk primarily, bike secondly, bus and car are a distant transportation method option at this point. There’s no use in a yearly pass for 5-10 trips a month.
Our work still pays for everyone’s parking downtown, even after layoffs. They refuse to cut normal expenses that any business would have done 2 years ago. Wacky world.
Trimet’s situation is very similar to the Oregon state budget. The revenue system is screwed. Every now and then they do some firefighting to get another short-term fix (see: measures 66/67 and current budget cuts / cutting bus lines when ridership is at record levels and cutting fareless square). When really they should pull their fingers out and fix the funding situation long term, and make it more stable to fluctuations in the economy. Taking it from property taxes instead of payroll taxes would be a good place to start (and would allow them to collect more money from the areas that have the best service).
Of course, that would require common sense. So long as Fred Hansen’s in charge, I won’t be holding my breath.
PS Blabby: Very tasty, thanks, but next time can you cut down on the fiber in your diet a bit?
“Ridership doubles or triples when they replace bus lines with streetcar lines, they’ve seen that at many cities across the US. “
Please provide specific examples, with citations.
@?pqM)mH{5i* I’m not sure what time of day you are most likely to see streetcars but more often than not I see the streetcars packed. I’m usually around the PSU or Library area when I see that so I don’t know about other areas.
@Texas – PLEASE post a picture of a public bus with a banner ad for a strip club that went out of business last year.
Jinx
$148.27 million to go to 3.3 mile loop to OMSI? Just wow. I mean look at the massive traffic jams to get to OMSI daily. This will really clean up a big portion of the congestion we face.
I often wonder why corridors like 99 have been ignored up until recently.
How about a piece of that $600 million bike plan covers the gap?