Transit’s Not Sucking the Taxpayer Dry — Roads Are

[Towntalk]

First, my booboo ... it's Fullington not Fullerton. sorry about that.

The State College reference is for their Trailways unit.

When I was a child almost three quarters of a century ago, Fullington had the Edwards Lake to Sea franchise along with local bus service and since ELTS evolved into Trailways they have a long and steady history.

DuBois may also be a part of the Trailways unit.

As a side note, Edwards Lake to Sea got its start in Curvinsville, a small town not far from Clearfield with buses running from Curvinsville to Clearfield the county seat of Clearfield County.

[northside lurker]

No Westsider, it's the Fullerton Auto Bus Company. They also have a franchise for Trailways.

The only website they have is for their tour service which is understandable since the local services are not that big that they would need to run a website like WRTA.

What area do they serve?  I don't know if CATA serves Clearfield and DuBois, but they do serve State College.

[Towntalk]

No Westsider, it's the Fullerton Auto Bus Company. They also have a franchise for Trailways.

The only website they have is for their tour service which is understandable since the local services are not that big that they would need to run a website like WRTA.

[northside lurker]

Just to be clear, this is only an issue, because some feel that public transit is OK only if it is "self supporting," aka, a private business.

[northside lurker]

It would be a sad situation if Youngstown ends up like Warren without a public transportation system.

My hometown of 8000 has its own public transportation system and the buses are not as large as ours, and their system is privately owned ... always has been.

Is this the system you're referring to?  http://www.catabus.com/AboutCATA/index.html  I glanced through their "About" page, and didn't see anything about private ownership.  Regardless, they receive local, state, and federal funding like any other transit system.

[Towntalk]

The point I was making was NOT that we get smaller buses, but that if a small town can support mass transit that it should be no issue here.

The service back home services three equally small towns ... Clearfield, DuBoies, and State College and also has a tour service with large tour buses. The service at State College it seems to me would be the busy one since it is the home of Penn State University and Clearfield besides being a county seat also has a university branch.

[jay]

During part of the day the incoming Cornersburg bus becomes the outbound Steel.

[northside lurker]

There's two potential improvements WRTA could make.

Many of WRTA's routes couldn't be run with smaller buses--there wouldn't be enough room.  At certain times, on some routes, a smaller bus could be used, though.  But, because of the way the buses are utilized, (some buses change their route when they return to the station--one of the Struthers buses becomes the Austintown, for example) I think it's more efficient for the driver to skip changing buses at the garage.

All public transportation systems were privately owned back before the government really started to subsidize roads.
From this article: http://mahoninghistory.blogspot.com/2007/08/from-horse-car-to-bus-public.html

But by the 1950s, the popularity of the automobile threatened to make mass transit in Youngstown extinct. With income steadily falling, Youngstown Transit in 1970 turned operations over to the Mahoning Valley Regional Mass Transit Authority, which sought government funding for public transportation. The Mass Transit Authority gave way to the Western Reserve Transit Authority in 1971,

[Why?Town]

It would be a sad situation if Youngstown ends up like Warren without a public transportation system.

My hometown of 8000 has its own public transportation system and the buses are not as large as ours, and their system is privately owned ... always has been.

There's two potential improvements WRTA could make.

[Towntalk]

It would be a sad situation if Youngstown ends up like Warren without a public transportation system.

My hometown of 8000 has its own public transportation system and the buses are not as large as ours, and their system is privately owned ... always has been.

[northside lurker]

Appropriations to maintain roads are one of the truly legitimate functions of government.  This is one of the things that our tax money is supposed to pay for, a true PUBLIC GOOD that can be used by all.  It is not a transfer payment where one group of people subsidize another group, or crony capitalism where a private business obtains govt. money.

Yep you will find no argument here.  If only more of our tax money went into roaf and infrastructure building, and even light rail if it is going to be used by enough people to justify the cost.

WRTA was barely able to pass their sales tax the first time. (and I shudder to think what will happen in 2013)  So, IMO, it's highly unlikely that the same people who are lukewarm--at best--toward our current public transportation, would support the recreation of light rail.

[Rick Rowlands]

Appropriations to maintain roads are one of the truly legitimate functions of government.  This is one of the things that our tax money is supposed to pay for, a true PUBLIC GOOD that can be used by all.  It is not a transfer payment where one group of people subsidize another group, or crony capitalism where a private business obtains govt. money.

Yep you will find no argument here.  If only more of our tax money went into roaf and infrastructure building, and even light rail if it is going to be used by enough people to justify the cost.

[Towntalk]

  Great observation Westsider

[northside lurker]

Saw this on Facebook today.

http://dc.streetsblog.org/2011/12/12/transit%E2%80%99s-not-sucking-the-taxpayer-dry-roads-are/

From the article:
"It's not just Wisconsin – Policy Matters Ohio recently published its own version of the Wisconsin study [PDF], showing that in that state, drivers pay 60 percent of the cost for roads, with government subsidies picking up the tab for the remaining 40 percent..."

"'The 3-C interstate highway corridor from Cleveland through Columbus to Cincinnati cost 7.5 times more to build than the 3-C passenger rail corridor would have," the group notes, "and requires 18 times the level of annual appropriations to keep the highway in good repair (more than $200 million annually).'"