By Bob Walsh
According to today's San Francisco PRAVDA (known as the
Chronicle in some circles) the major bay area rapid transit operations
are about to roll over and die unless they get a fresh influx of cash
from the benevolent Joe Biden.
The
agencies had hoped to get a couple of billion from the state but with
the state looking at a $31 billion plus deficit that is unlikely to
happen any time soon. Biden doesn't need to kick down any money because
the people who will be pissed off are not going to vote for Trump
anyway, so ........
The S.
F. Muni is talking about major cutbacks in service as early as this
summer. They are talking about cutting (not cutting back, but
eliminating) one Muni line per month for the next 20 months. The S F
transit agency is going to rake off more parking meter income by
extending metered parking hours and kick that down to Muni.
BART
is looking at cutbacks in service and staff layoffs about this time
next year. They are hoping desperately to increase their off-peak
ridership, which is down more than half since the plague began. BART is
having trouble with their ridership expecting things like clean and
safe trains. I know that is unreasonable and unrealistic, but that's
what the ungrateful bastards want.
Traditionally
transit districts in the bay area are highly balkanized and guard their
turf jealously. Perhaps maybe some sort of consolidation will be the
result. Maybe. Don't hold your breath on that. When the Golden Gate
Bridge was paid off and the bridge district was supposed to mostly go
away except for maintenance the district decided that the bay needed
ferrys again and bought a bunch of them. They operate at a significant
loss, though the tourists and a few actual commuters love them. They
also had the added benefit of ensuring that the board that runs the
district will NOT lose their cushy jobs.
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