Well, at least to the White House web site.
I suspect this is the first time that video from a gathering I was at made it to such an august location on the internet… goose bumps over the “vision thing”.
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All the stuff that the gubmit is planning on cutting but they are excited about this?
Lets cut home heating oil for the elderly, pell grants, food inspections,literacy programs, close worksource centers for the unemployed, but lets build streetcars?
Complete and total insanity.
The solution, Al, is not to cut investments in transit infrastructure, but rather to end massive subsidies to corporations like oil companies, tax giveaways to huge conglomerates like GE, and fewer foreign wars.
You’re buying into the scam where we’re supposed to think it’s infrastructure vs. poverty programs. It’s not. That’s not where the real money is being spent.
Try out this online “Tax Receipt Generator” and put in your info and see where your money is really going.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/taxes/tax-receipt
Thats the best solution Bob, agreed!
But to continue funding fat while cutting muscle is abhorant.
Lets cut home heating oil for the elderly, pell grants, food inspections,literacy programs, close worksource centers for the unemployed,
… but God forbid TriMet wants their employees to chip in on their health care premiums? Getting off-topic, but I watched the video you posted earlier. I really don’t know where to start with listing the logical fallacies, but I’ll start with the biggest thing he was harping on. His biggest example of things seemed to be this carbon tax, but he declined to even posit a mechanism for which the corporations “pretending” to be against such a thing would benefit. And while the two-party system isn’t awesome for a lot of reasons, I don’t really see the analogy to Lake Oswego’s city council.
And don’t worry, the people trying to cut things people want are no fans of Streetcars. In fact, if you do a Google News search you’ll discover a number of proposed Streetcar lines across the company in Jeopardy. Not sure how many of them United Streetcar was behind, but I bet they’re biting their fingernails.
Erm, no, none of the streetcar lines are going to play on Jeopardy with Alex Trebek, I’m pretty sure!
All the stuff that the gubmit is planning on cutting but they are excited about this?
Forget about the federal government cuts.
Since the Portland Streetcar opened, just how many TriMet bus lines have been cut; how many bus trips have been cut; “Frequent Service” has been eliminated; TriMet has all but stopped replacing its aging bus fleet earning TriMet the dubious honor of having one of the oldest, least reliable and least fuel efficient bus fleets of any major North American transit agency; bus stops are a disgrace…all thanks to siphoning $6 million a year to fund the City of Portland Streetcar (along with a few other projects – three MAX lines and WES.)
There’s never any money to fix what we have now that is most unquestionably broken and need of urgent repair – but there’s always money to give to special interests and political donors like the developers and the shareholders of United Streetcar/Oregon Iron Works. We can build 100% made-in-America buses – in fact Gillig does, and both Salem and Vancouver have purchased 100% made in America buses (TriMet favors New Flyer whose buses are assembled in Minnesota but the work begins across the international line in Winnipeg, Manitoba.) And Daimler Trucks, which has a largely idled factory right here in Portland, ought to have been encouraged to start up an Orion Bus plant which would have brought back hundreds of good paying blue collar jobs right here in Portland with at least two years of guaranteed work; plus the various shuttered RV factories all throughout the state could have also been used as bus factories. Using existing factories, existing, trained workers, and providing jobs and benefits across the state.
Instead, we have a bunch of empty factory shells, a Streetcar “factory” that has just one completed Streetcar to show for it in several years of operation, a meager 50 jobs which pales in comparison to the hundreds and hundreds of lost jobs that would have been easily adapted to bus construction, and political payoffs that are robbing our transportation dollars.
Since the Portland Streetcar opened, just how many TriMet bus lines have been cut; how many bus trips have been cut; … all thanks to siphoning $6 million a year to fund the City of Portland Streetcar
TriMet’s commitment to streetcar operations in FY2010 was $3.2 million, the equivalent funding which would be given to a bus line of similar operating frequency. That has now been reduced to $2.8 million.
When TriMet made service cuts to buses and MAX, it cut streetcar funds by an equal percentage. The streetcar gets higher ridership than most bus lines, by the way.
There is no conflict between streetcars, light rail, and bus service. All have a role to play.
It is the official, oft-stated position of Portland Streetcar management that bus service should be restored first prior to any increases in TriMet’s share of streetcar funding.
From the February Streetcar CAC minutes:
From the April minutes:
(I am a CAC member)
a meager 50 jobs which pales in comparison to the hundreds and hundreds of lost jobs that would have been easily adapted to bus construction
This topic came up in our recent interview with Neil McFarlane:
Al, if it makes you feel any better, high speed rail got slaughtered along with heating oil for the poor and elderly.
I love what OIW and United Streetcar is doing but they’re going to need to build a lot more streetcars to live up to the hype they’ve been receiving.
Erik H:
It would be better to say “assembled in America” rather than “100% made in America”.
When you look at the parts, I’d bet they come from many places. That’s why buying American cars might doesn’t mean much anymore, especially considering there are some foreign assembly factories in the US.
I don’t disagree with the notion that we need to think about local manufacturing jobs.
I actually heard TriMet will be purchasing new buses soon.
It is the official, oft-stated position of Portland Streetcar management that bus service should be restored first prior to any increases in TriMet’s share of streetcar funding.
Then why is TriMet slated to add $3 million a year to Streetcar Loop funding before restoring bus service?
It would be better to say “assembled in America” rather than “100% made in America”.
When you look at the parts, I’d bet they come from many places.
I can order a Gillig (frame/body made in the U.S. from U.S. components, U.S. steel) with a Detroit Diesel engine (made in the U.S. of U.S. components), an Allison Transmission (made in the U.S. of U.S. components), Goodyear tires (made in the U.S. of U.S. components), Meritor axles (made in the U.S. of U.S. components), American made windows, seats, floors, emergency exits, throttle systems, multiplex systems…
By the way, ARRA funding saved 175 jobs at Gillig alone and provided 12 brand new buses for Cherriots. If the overriding concern is bringing jobs to America, then why is TriMet getting a free pass after supporting Canadian companies (New Flyer, Bombardier), German companies (Siemens), a Soviet-bloc company (Ikarus), a Czech company (Inkeon)…clearly TriMet’s track record has not been to focus on American jobs or even Oregonian jobs. We can tout “50 jobs at United Streetcar” all day long but while we’re TALKING about Streetcars, Gillig is actually delivering products. Where should I put my money – on vaporware, or hardware?
Gillig vs. New Flyer, what are the price differences like? Any reason to prefer one over the other (as a rider)? I was on a Phantom, I think, the other day, and to me it felt a bit roomier. But that might be more of a high-floor thing.
Then why is TriMet slated to add $3 million a year to Streetcar Loop funding before restoring bus service?
“Slated” does not equal committed, and by the time that line is operating, bus service ought to be restored. Bus service is being restored partially in the next budget (but admittedly, that’s not final either, and it’s not near fully restored).
Your original point was to lay the primary blame of TriMet’s ills on the amount of funding they give the streetcar, and that’s simply and demonstrably not true. Beyond that, it is the attitude of the streetcar CAC, populated by transit supporters, that bus service has been cut too much and ought to be restored. Allies, not enemies.
And the amount “committed” by TriMet so far to Streetcar Loop operations is $1.2M annually, not $3M, although at least several hundred thousand more will probably be required before we actually have a budget that will support operations.
Chris,
Do you know how much TriMet expects to budget or Portland Streetcar expects to ask for LOtP streetcar operations? The agency maintains it cannot budget for project ops before FY 2019.
Since Frequent Service for the 35 isn’t scheduled until somewhere between FY 2018 and 2025 (according to the RTP), it’s likely that we’d be going directly from the current service to streetcar. If so, any savings from discontinuing Lake Oswego – Portland buses would be absorbed by extending the 78 to Oregon City or otherwise bringing that section up to Frequent Service. Therefore the entire cost of LOtP streetcar ops would be on top of current expenses.
I’ve estimated it very roughly at about $3.5 million per year. It would be helpful for a lot of folks to know if there is another number being bounced around.
I think the premise of your question has a lot of assumptions that are currently unknowns. For example, it is not a given that Portland Streetcar Inc would operate LOPT, so Portland Streetcar has not “asked” TriMet for anything.
TriMet has gone on record that LOPT would be regional service and they would expect to fund its operations, but could not do so before 2019. The DEIS has estimates of the operating costs.
Thanks for your prompt reply, Chris.
I understand and agree that there are a lot of unknowns. However one would think that TriMet in declaring that it could not fund ops until 2019 must have some sort of a rough number or at least threshold in mind. Why 2019 and not 2018 or 2020?
Regarding DEIS estimates: they’re for 2035 and include ultra-frequent commute hour runs that certainly wouldn’t be necessary for start-up six to eight years for now.
Can it be assumed from your answer that you haven’t heard any number from insiders or that such a number is too preliminary for public consumption? In that case, if you believe that $3.5 million is wildly off, it would be helpful to know why.
I don’t have any numbers that aren’t in the DEIS. I’m not particularly taking issue with $3.5M nor do I have any info to confirm it.
I think 2019 is basically the first year that TriMet has any available operating funds after absorbing the new service hours required for the Milwaukie line.