Why do people keep complaining about losing a Transit system that is over funded anyway?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : I-695 Thirty Dollar License Tab Initiative : One Thread

I was at the Tri-Ctiy fair on Wednesday, and happened apon the Republican booth, that had the "Yes on 695" flyer stacked on the table. I started talking with a lady whom I do not remember her name. I was voicing my oppinion on how I felt on 695 ( in which I said "it is a long time coming"). Well just as I was done there was a man next to me that piped up and said " well you know that if this passes, you can kiss good bye Ben-Franklin Transit" and he continue " if you take the cost of taking your elderly parents to the doctor or your children to school and then factor in the lost wages for time off work you would be better off voting no on 695. This in turn would allow the BFT system to continue and get our kids to school and our parents to the appointments." I then thought for a minute and then replied. " Have you ever looked inside one of the BFT busses, normally there is but maybe 5 people on it." I continued " I know that allot of the money for BFT goes for Hanford workers, which I really have no problem with. For the rest of BFT why don't we restructure it so that it only arrives say every hour in which they would cover 2 routes and reduce 1 bus?" needless to say he was visually upset with this answer. He replied " well what about my parents?" I said "you take them to the doctor" I continued " I don't want to pay for your parents to go to the doctor, you take yours and I will take mine" he replied walking off in rage " you will be old some day and there will be those people that will say the same thing to you except this time it will be directed towards you" I said back not sure if he heard me as he was stomping off, " I am not worried about that as I will have raised my family with good family values to take care of there own!" I just wanted to point out that here is another person that would love to rely on some one else to take care of there business. I am sick and tired of these people wanting everything done FOR them! Don't they understand that they are driving this country into a version of Communisim? Lazy, Lazy people I have NO time for them. We all know the real reason for opposition on 695, this will tie there hands in the future, to push through new taxes, because of the line realating to the fact that government will have to go to the people for a vote to get taxes through. Thank you for your time Have to go, I need to get some more of those flyers out!

-- Jason Sowder (jsowder@ces-pasco.com), August 28, 1999

Answers

Consider... BFT is in the top 3 systems in Washington state as far as monetary efficiency is concerned...

I wholly agree that more routes should run once an hour, especially in Kennewick and Richland. Those in BFT management that bother reading this list will know my feelings on the matter...

My proposal:

Richland:

Combine 20 and 24 routes into a single route, combine 23 and 26 into another single route. The 39 is going to be replaced with a revised W Richland route, so this is not an issue...

Richland would now require only 1 coach to run hourly service. However, one coach would not be sufficient for peak ridership times... There is a large number of people that ride to school in the morning, then the afternoon from 1pm on is pretty busy the rest of the day... So, there'd have to be some disincentive for school children... Getting rid of youth fares would probably be a good start.

Kennewick...

Kennewick's problem is that nobody in S Kennewick rides the bus outside of school dismissal times. N of 10th Ave has tons of ridership Monday-Saturday, so those services should remain untouched.

South of 10th Ave, service should be cut back to 1 route that would operate a one way loop, like my suggestion for Richland (above). This route would require 1 coach to operate once an hour.

Pasco

Pasco should pretty much be left alone... Ride the buses over there sometime... they get FULL!!! Pasco's routes have the highest farebox return ratio because they consistently get 10-15 (usually 20-25) a trip.

W Richland and West Benton County Rural service

All service W of Richland should be operated by the 170, which should be modified as follows:

Use 2 coaches instead of 1, running every 90 minutes. From Richland TC, run to W Richland by way of Stevens, Van Giesen to Benton City, Babs/Horne to OIE, OIE to Prosser, return via I-82 to Benton City, Kennedy Road to Bombing Range, Bombing Range to Van Giesen, Van Giesen to Jadwin, Jadwin to Richland TC.

Eliminate all commuter services, switch to vanpools (which are self- sufficient), Eliminate 225.

I'm probably going to write to BFT's General Manager with something to this extent...

Brian (who actually supports I-695 for all reasons except for BFT)

-- Brian Bradford (bbradford@tcfn.org), August 30, 1999.


Brian

If the B-F Transit is among the 3rd best run in the state, you must be reffering to their cash reserves.

(1) B-F Transis has a $12.3 million reserve. They could run the system without making any changes for 2 years without taking another dime of MVET revenue.

(2) Here are the costs of boarding as given on page 94 of the 1998 Comprehensive Annual Report:

Bus $4.80 vanpool $1.04 Dial-A-Ride $12.60 Night Service $10.86 General Demand $6.88

It costs the taxpayer at least $4.30 everytime someone steps on the buss, assuming they pay the full $0.50 fare. The B-F Transit management can be expected to do much better with our taxpayers dollars. However, with their $12.3 million reserve, they could continue with their wasteful management practices for another 2 years after I-695 is approved by just consuming the reserve. Don't forget they get 3.75% of all the sales tax collected in their service area.

-- RD (Monte) Benham (rmonteb@aol.com), August 30, 1999.


I just hope you aren't getting these numbers from the Nurse from Hell, aka Persona-Non-Grata-En-Richland... been too long since I've been to a board meeting... I forget her last name... Jo-ann something rather... torments the Tricycle herald once a month... then has her husband torment them once a month.

The money in reserves, like I've said previously, is to fund operations in the event of a tax loss... Most of it is actually in a bus sinking fund (to buy new buses). Most of the fleet will be reaching 12 years old here in the next couple of years, and will be needing replacement. Do you ever bother going to a BFT board meeting? 2nd Thursday of every month, 7pm at BFT Garage in the Richland Y...

I'm not attending at present because of other activities which conflict, and the fact that I'm unhappy with their present performance.

-- Brian Bradford (bbradford@tcfn.org), August 31, 1999.


Brian:

My answers come from the BFT Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, Dec. 31, 1998. It contains 94 pages. The last page gives the boarding costs.

If you would like a report, ask them for a copy. How would you like to have enough money in the bank to pay all of your expenses for one year (like the BFT has)?

-- RD (Monte) Bemham (rmonteb@aol.com), August 31, 1999.


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