Posts Tagged Waterfront Line
RTA Getting Out of the Transit Business… Really
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development, Media on August 19, 2009
August 19, 2009… The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) is planning to drop “Transit” from its name. You can tell that because it keeps eliminating transportation for people. In fact, it can change its name to the Greater Cleveland Downtown Pleasing Authority.
At least that’s the way it seems to me as Joe Calabrese, general manager, becomes a leading excuse maker and weaker executive than we now need.
How hard is it to NOT provide transportation if you’re a transit operation? Apparently, not hard at all.
RTA will cut all circulators in a few weeks and will cut back on services on 16 bus routes.
AND will raise the price of a ride by 25 cents.
That’s a solution to dropping ridership? That’s a recipe for fewer and fewer riders.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. RTA management didn’t say NO to the downtown gang when it needed some $200 million to beautify Euclid Avenue from Public Square to University Circle. I’d like to know how much money RTA is now losing on that operation.
RTA management didn’t say NO when it paid some $69 million for the useless Waterfront Line. Totally from local RTA funds. The downtown cabal forced it to forgo federal funds for the line because it wanted the line pronto for the city’s Bicentennial and the opening of the Rock Hall.
When it comes to the ordinary riders Calabrese and his RTA board finds it easy to say, “No, we can’t do it.” When it comes to the downtown crowd, “ain’t nothing we can’t do.”
When I asked for figures on ridership on the Waterfront Line, RTA couldn’t come up with figures. Don’t keep those figures, I was told. But you noticed The Plain Dealer used detailed figures on the circulators and the supposed decline. (Does the decline come as a result of RTA’s performance and desire to curtail this service? And don’t tell me that the figures are true actual counts either because I don’t believe you.)
The Waterfront Line should be stopped and put out of business before the circulators are, if cost is a problem.
RTA management didn’t say NO to the $13 million or so walkway to Gateway from Sam Miller’s Tower City. If Gateway felt it needed that help, it should have paid for it and it should pay for the use of that property and its maintenance costs now.
I don’t want to hear that sales tax revenue is down. Should have thought of that a long time ago.
Unload some of the heavy executive staff. Cut that downtown free downtown trolley service. That should go first.
It’s time that RTA took its job seriously and started fighting for more money, too.
If we can think about spending $350 million on a so-called Opportunity Corridor, pushed by the downtown Greater Cleveland Partnership, along with PD publisher Terry Egger, its co-chairman, we can think about getting some more money for transit dependent people. Those who don’t have cars to get to their jobs, to their medical appointments, even to get downtown.
RTA Takes Us For The Wrong Ride
Posted by Roldo Bartimole in Economic Development on July 18, 2009
July 18, 2009… Is the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA, bkna as RTA) taking us on another ride? As a transit system, it seems more like a servant of the same old special interests when it should be taking care of transit-dependent citizens.
Yes, I believe RTA does have a money problem with sales taxes and ridership down. Raising fares hardly seems the solution.
However, I also know that RTA hasn’t paid enough attention in the past to its spending. If it did RTA wouldn’t have to be cutting crucial services now.
We’re being told that there is a $5.5 million problem. The solution for RTA’s management is to cut services and raise the price by 25 cents.
That appears to be not a palatable solution.
If CEO and General Manager Joe Calabrese and his RTA board can’t find $5 million in his more than $240 million (2008) budget, then we need to get someone who can do the job.
RTA has become too accustomed to providing services that aren’t really necessary. Too comfy saying yes to the downtown scrounges.
The Euclid Corridor Improvement Project (Health Line) was a perfect example of spending transit money for non-transit purposes. The road was plenty wide for RTA buses. I’d like to know the annual upkeep costs of this Euclid Avenue beautification program.
If you’ve got a lot of extra money to spend, fine, beautify. However, RTA’s primary task is to move people from where they are to where they need to go, especially people who can’t afford to own vehicles.
RTA spent $69 million of OUR dollars for the Waterfront Line, rushing it to please Mayor George Voinovich and his buddy Dick Pogue. They wanted it up for the opening of the Rock Hall of Fame and their parties. To get it done, RTA had to forget about federal subsidy, which probably would have covered 80 percent of the cost. The Waterfront Line was ill-planned and now it ill-serves.
The Waterfront Line service has been cutback. It’s important that RTA tell us just how much it costs to keep this line operating at any level. Maybe it should be mothballed totally.
Equally unnecessary for RTA was the walkway from Tower City to Gateway, a cost of some $11-13 million. I’ve never been able to get an undisputed figure. RTA has to “reimburse” Tower City for utility charges on the walkway.
It’s time RTA got tough and told the Gateway Economic Development Corp., which operates the Gateway facilities, that it has to pick up the cost of the walkway and pay to have its fans delivered to its doors. Why should RTA’s riders pay for this?
Despite the fact that these RTA facilities help Tower City, RTA pays some $1 million a year to Forest City Enterprises, owner of Tower City. It’s annual fee for RTA’s use of space into Tower City. RTA pays an addition $32,000 to “reimburse” Tower City for central plant operations. It even pays a utility charge for use of the escalators! There’s room for negotiations here to lower costs.
Isn’t it time to renegotiate these fees lower since there’s less use and Tower City seems to always get reductions of its property taxes?
The County or the State needs to provide more funding to RTA, too. Why shouldn’t there be subsidies for mass transit? It’s a method of lowering pollution and reducing traffic. We build enough roads for cars.
A small surcharge on every car in the County each year should produce the kind of revenue needed for mass transit.