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A quick decline, and bleak future, for O.C. transit agency
Los Angeles Times
The Orange County Transportation Authority was named best in the country in 2005. But decreasing ridership and sales-tax revenue have forced it to cut hours and staff, and more cuts are en route. "We're in the middle of a near-catastrophic meltdown in Sacramento," OCTA Board Chairman Peter Buffa said. "The same transit system we were so proud of in 2005 has been greatly reduced, and shortly will be decimated." From a budget surplus of $12 million in 2004, the OCTA is now facing a $300-million shortfall over the next five years.
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The Recession: A Particularly Stupid Time To Cut Public Transportation
The Infrastructurist
Americans now rely more on public transportation than they have since the days when the Interstate system was being built. Public transportation saved the country $14 billion in 2007 simply by lessening urban congestion. And have we even mentioned climate change? Yet, with funding cuts from state and local governments, transit agencies are scrambling to remain solvent, often by raising fares and cutting jobs and services.
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Revenue report tells BART's tale
San Francisco Chronicle
Fifty-three percent of BART's revenue comes primarily from fares from you and me, and ancillary things like parking fees at BART stations. With fewer of us taking BART, because many of us no longer have a job to commute to ... well, you get the picture. Approximately 30 percent of BART's money comes from state sales taxes. Again, we don't need to tell you how that revenue stream has performed in the Great Recession. Rounding out BART's three-headed revenue monster is California's "state transit assistance." Or, we should say, what was its state transit assistance. BART's share, $17.4 million, is flat-out gone, zeroed out, along with the entire program, earlier this year by our supposedly mass-transit-supporting governor, who eschewed any attempt to seek out new sources of revenue.
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Santa Rosa bus drivers agree to pay concessions
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
The City Council on Tuesday approved a two-year agreement with the Service Employees International Union, which represents 63 bus drivers. The contract provides no pay raises through 2010 but includes minimal increased city payments toward medical and retirement benefits, which will cost the city $39,000 this year and $42,000 in 2010. With that agreement, more than half of the city’s 1,200 workers will have agreed either to take no pay raises or minimal ones over the next two years as the city tries to overcome an ongoing budget deficit once projected at $26 million.
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Public transportation stalled by US recession
Forbes
Faced with dwindling funds and increased demand, public transit agencies across the United States are weighing service cuts or fare increases to deal with budget deficits, with San Francisco raising its ticket fees the most over the last year, a study released on Tuesday said. San Francisco's Muni system has pushed up the base fare to use its public transportation by 33 percent, and the Bay Area Rapid Transit System, a network extending beyond the city's boundaries, has increased fares 17 percent, the study said.
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Report: Public transit funding "unstable"
Sacramento Business Journal
Close to 90 percent of transit systems across the country, including Sacramento Regional Transit, have raised fares or cut service in the past year, but the hits to transit did not have to happen, according to a report released today. The report, “Stranded at the Station: The Impact of the Financial Crisis in Public Transportation,” is a systematic analysis of the nationwide financial crisis in public transportation. “RT could not absorb an $18.3 million raid by the state of California without asking riders to pay more,” general manager Mike Wiley said, in the report. Another round of fare increases is planned for Sacramento RT Sept. 1, including an increase in the cash fare to $2.50 and additional cuts to bus service.
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Proposed SamTrans cuts draw howls
San Mateo County Times
Residents reliant on SamTrans service to commute to work and school slammed proposals released Tuesday that could eliminate up to 17 bus lines and reduce service to other routes. Under an updated proposal released at a meeting of the San Mateo County Transit District's board of directors, the bus service may lose as many as 7,269 passengers — about 13 percent of its average weekday ridership. Up to 17 bus lines could be eliminated, while still others could stop running after 10 p.m. or operate less frequently.
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