Cincinnati ready to bet it all

Cincinnati OH - Cincinnati City Council is all set to hop on the streetcar bandwagon but has already had a power failure. The City Council, eager to show how business will support their plan, found out that businesses aren't quite as eager to participate as they had hoped.

Chris Bortz, a member of council, stated earlier that Duke Energy could pay to build the power grid needed for the city's streetcar plan but Duke Energy quickly put a stop to that idea. Duke Energy stated that it would not be the "sole funder" of the power infrastructure.

Not deterred, Bortz spinned Duke's refusal to go along as insignificant. He stated that "even without Duke, the streetcar line is such a good investment that other companies will put up money to make it happen."

Excuse me while I stifle a laugh.

While Bortz may find support from other businesses as he claims, that support will primarily be symbolic, not financial. The City Council wants private business to pick up the tab for about a third of the cost of the proposed $102 million dollar boondoggle. That proposed cost will surely be $200 million or more by the time all is said and done. Businesses, while supportive, have their own worries and making sure the city can build a streetcar line isn't one of them.

What is even more worrisome about the project is that the city is jumping on the streetcar bandwagon while already facing a $29 million dollar deficit without the project. Taxpayers of Cincinnati, hold onto your wallets as your about to get rolled big time if this streetcar idea isn't stopped now.

The streetcar line is being proposed strictly for developmental reasons. A virtual guarantee of financial failure. Taxpayers will be picking up the tab for decades to come for a project that won't even come close to doing what it is being promised.

Development will not occur unless the taxpayers are forced to fund tax breaks, sweetheart deals, grants and low interest loans (which are rarely ever paid back). This will cost hundreds of millions more on top of the cost to build and operate the streetcar line.

What is going to happen if this unneeded streetcar idea moves forward is this. Businesses will not even come close to contributing a third of the cost. If the city is lucky, they might get 5 to 8 percent from the private sector. Taxpayers will have to pick up the rest of the tab. Development will not happen for decades and then only on the backs of the taxpayers. Ridership will come nowhere close to projections and at the proposed 50 cent fare, a year's worth of farebox revenue will barely make a dent in the cost to operate the line for a week.

I give the Cincinnati City Council a big Lance for going out of their way to find new ways to spend money while already facing a huge deficit. The streetcar line is unneeded and the city clearly can't afford the luxury.

Is Toledo next on the LRT bandwagon?

Toledo OH - Planners are envisioning light rail for the Toledo Ohio area even though the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority (TARTA) is in a funding crisis and has a lackluster transit operation.

This desire for rail has spurred a long article in the Toledo Blade touting the benefits of rail as well as an article in the same paper that dredges up the National City Lines (NCL) conspiracy once again even though it had little to nothing to do with Toledo eliminating their streetcars back in the 1940's.

The NCL conspiracy is another trick used to generate support for rail operations and is usually greatly exaggerated. An interesting and well documented article on the NCL conspiracy was written by Cliff Slater for the Transportation Quarterly back in 1997 (HTML or PDF available) and dispels many of the conspiracy theories. Naturally Slater's article has been condemned by the pro-rail crowd because it sheds light on the myth they love and disproves many things they have come to believe.

In Toledo's case, the rail operations were eliminated because the Community Traction Company (CTC) couldn't afford to run the aging and ever increasing costly streetcar lines and local political pressure was heavy on the company to get rid of the streetcars so they could pave over the tracks. NCL had nothing to do with the CTC's decision to dump the streetcars yet what does the pro-rail Toledo Blade bring up to generate public support for the light rail proposal?

Toledo is just another city that wants to jump on the rail bandwagon when it can't afford what it has already. I was surprised that they weren't trying to push it for development although it was brought up. The proposal was discussed more in terms of actually moving people. That's a rarity these days as using rail for actual transportation is down the list behind development and political legacy reasons.

In addition, the manner in which TARTA is funded is unstable. Ohio transit systems rely heavily on voter approved tax levees to fund their operation. Some systems have come and gone based on voters rejecting a levy. Also, TARTA has issues with communities wanting the ability to pull out of the system with little advanced notice. This situation places TARTA's funding on an even more unsecured footing.

To add an expensive rail operation that will not serve all the outlaying communities will spell major problems for TARTA. As costs go up to operate a rail line, communities that don't benefit from the rail line will balk about having to pay for it. Levy rejections and pull outs from the TARTA system will likely happen which will leave TARTA struggling even more to find the money to operate.

TARTA General Manager James Gee acknowledged the all important point which is how would TARTA pay to run a light rail line. Most systems ignore this point but Gee seems to be looking more at the whole picture rather than putting on a pair of rose colored glasses.

Toledo would be better off starting with a Bus Rapid Transit operation similar to Lane Transit's EmX operation in Eugene Oregon to establish a corridor and build up ridership. While Toledo's ridership has increased, it is still not very strong and isn't even remotely close to being able to justify a light rail line, even with falsified ridership projections.

Proposal to replace SORTA being floated

Cincinnati OH - The Cincinnati Post reports on a proposal for a regional transit panel to replace the existing Southwest Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) board which oversees the Cincinnati Metro.

Hamilton County Commissioner Todd Portune believes that a new panel is needed to replace SORTA, which focuses on Cincinnati, so that the entire tri-state area is covered. A daunting venture at best.

There are many problems involved in a multi-state regional system, primarily the different laws that are in place in each state. Secondly and probably more important is that you then open the agency up to accusations of favoritism of one state over another. These two issues tend to bog down multi-state operations and ultimately make the transit operation less efficient and more costly.

Dealing with different states instantly turns the process of the proposed panel that should deal with transit issues into nothing but politics. Fights over which state should benefit from funding and over revenues raised in one state being used in another state will be common. Should the smaller Northern Kentucky area and even smaller Southeastern Indiana area pay as much as Southwestern Ohio? If so, will they get the same services and if not, why should they pay more? Criticism of the board over questions like that will be common.

While I agree with Portune that SORTA is not effectively set up, his proposed regional umbrella agency will ultimately be more unwieldy and much less effective in the long term than the current SORTA set up is now.

Portune's goal is a good one, better transit that is coordinated. Much like any lofty goal however, the plan is filled with problems that will ultimately make things worse. The agency will be riddled with internal problems due to the politics of it all and that will give the new agency a public relations black eye.

In the end, it will be the rider that suffers from the politics of any multi-state regional transit board. SORTA needs looked at and streamlined but don't change it into a multi-state political boxing ring.

Dayton ditches bus advertisments

Dayton OH - The Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority (GDRTA) will be ditching advertising on its buses according to a news story in the Dayton Business Journal.

Bucking the trend of ad wrapped buses that have been appearing across transit systems all across North America, the GDRTA has determined that the revenue generated for having buses wrapped up as a rolling burrito and other advertisements is minuscule to its overall budget.

The GDRTA wants to make it's buses more appealing to ridership by having a uniform fleet color and a clean appearance. Advertising, including standard exterior board type ads, detract from the appearance.

One thing I found interesting from reading the article is that the GDRTA repaints its buses after an ad wrap is removed. Unlike my local transit system in Pittsburgh which rips the ad wrap off and sends the bus back out in service with the adhesive still applied to the bus so road dirt and even litter will stick to it (at least where it didn't rip the paint off with it), the GDRTA realizes that a clean appearance is important to making public transit appealing to the public.

A clean and uniform livery for the fleet is a good method to make a transit system more appealing. Psychologically, it tells people that you have a system that works and is well ordered. When you have a variety of fleet liveries with various ads slapped on them, it subconsciously transmits that the system is messed up and doesn't know what it is doing.

I will be watching how the GDRTA does without bus advertising. I like seeing buses without ads slapped all over them but I realize that advertising is an important part of the revenue stream for many operations.

The GDRTA earns itself a Laurel for understanding that a uniform fleet appearance will do more to attract ridership than a rolling burrito will.

A dumb move by Perrysburg OH officials

Perrysburg OH - While I generally don't agree with many editorials in newspapers, the one from the Toledo Blade on Monday 12/11/06 I do agree with. I have been following this story some as it has unfolded so I am not unfamiliar with what is happening there.

Perrysburg leaders wish to pull out from the local transit system, the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority (TARTA) as they don't see they are getting value from their contribution to the system. A few minor studies were commissioned by city leaders and minor attempts to try and improve service but the elected leaders have been opposed to TARTA for quite awhile and it was all just a show to try and claim they are impartial.

The surveys commissioned by the city also bring into question the accuracy of the survey. If taken at face value, the survey states nobody wants to ride the TARTA service. If that's the case then why is there ridership and why do voters routinely vote to fund TARTA?

City leaders refuse to acknowledge that residents willingly voted for the funding levy to fund Perrysburg's participation in TARTA for the past 20 years. While ridership numbers aren't spectacular, 30,000 riders a year originating in Perrysburg, it isn't pathetic either.

What is happening is that a handful of Perrysburg city leaders want to control the purse strings on TARTA and dictate how TARTA is to provide service. Since they can't directly control TARTA, given the regional nature of the operation, city leaders want to take their ball and go home.

While I agree with the Perrysburg city council in terms of transit needs to be run as a business, TARTA does a decent job of it for a government agency. No transit operation is without its problems, public or private.

What the Perrysburg city leaders are doing isn't meant to improve anything for their residents. All it's meant to do is give the city leaders more power and give them more money to spend how they want it to be spent, regardless of what the voters approved at the polls.

Perrysburg residents will soon find their access to public transit eliminated or severely limited. If city council contracts out services at a much greater cost than contributing to TARTA, it will only result in higher taxes. The power struggle of a handful of city officials to do a cash grab of the money that the city residents voted to provide to TARTA will ultimately prove to hurt all residents in Perrysburg and is a dumb move by Perrysburg officials.

Perrysburg leaders get the Lance for their attempt to pull out of TARTA even though the residents of the city voted for the service.