marta news clips 2-25-13

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2-25-13Today's Clips:

Transit Funding Transit


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Transit Funding

AJC 2-25-13

State budget might pay for bus system$8.1M plan for Xpress could pass, some say.

ByAriel Hart

For metro Atlanta commuters who manage the patchwork between county bussystems, MARTA and Xpress, a barely noticed revolution is tiptoeing through thestate Capitol.

For the first time in memory, a Georgia governor has proposed quietly thatthe state budget take on the operations of a mass transit system as its regularobligation.

So far, key legislators indicate Gov. Nathan Deals proposal, $8.1 million for

Georgia Regional Transportation Authoritys Xpress commuter buses, has aserious shot.

Support would be a 180-degree turn for Georgia.

If approved, the immediate result would be that Xpress commuter bus servicekeeps running for its 9,000 or so daily riders, instead of going broke and shuttingdown this summer.

It would also break one of the historic barriers to continual, robust region-widetransit here: the lack of any entity prepared to fund it.

To be sure, other barriers remain, and may be fatal. But the Xpress allocationraises tantalizing questions: for other Georgia transit systems, including MARTA,which yearn for a piece of state funding too, and for the future of Atlantasbalkanized transit systems, which many leaders believe are holding back theregions progress.

The state should take an active role, said Mark Fite, 47, an engineer andXpress patron who lives in Snellville like most Xpress passengers, taking along-haul ride from home in the suburbs to work in Atlanta. Fite said he believesthe state should help fund all the areas mass transit systems, and stop the

patchworks inefficiencies. I think it should be a regional solution.

A turnabout

Melding county and city transportation systems is slow going, even thoughcommutes dont end at government borders.
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For mass transit, the patchwork local mentality has been entrenched. Even if thestate sticks to funding Xpress alone, its still a big change.

When The Atlanta Journal-Constitution broke the news in 2010 that state fundshad begun filling gaps in Xpress operations, even the governors spokesmans

first reaction was that that could not be correct.

Highway repaving, certainly. Some bus hardware here and there, OK. But not thedaily costs of fuel in the tank and drivers salaries.

That, the mantra went, was local. The state has long put money toward 127small transit systems, but for capital costs, not operations.

Now, for the first time, money to operate Xpress is in the main annual statebudget proposal, instead of temporary stopgap measures.

In recent interviews with the AJC, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, Senate President DavidShafer, House Speaker David Ralston, House Speaker Pro Tempore Jan Jones,the chairmen of the Senate and House appropriations committees andtransportation committees did not shoot down the idea of state funding foroperations. Some were openly supportive.

The $8 million would get GRTA nearly to the end of the next fiscal year. It wouldcome back and ask for another $4 million, officials said, for a total $12 millionannual subsidy.

All the regions public transit systems have traditionally run on some combination

of fare receipts, local taxes and federal grants: Xpress, MARTA, Gwinnett CountyTransit, Cobb Community Transit, and smaller dial-up van services. Of them,only Xpress is managed by state government.

In the multicounty Atlanta area, GRTA has a huge advantage: Unlike other transitsystems, it can cross county borders without much red tape or controversy.

But its federal and county startup money ran out. For four years, the state filledthe funding gaps, but temporarily. When last summers transportat ion fundingreferendum failed, Xpress was out of options.

A lot of folks in the state have come to rely on that, said House AppropriationsChairman Terry England, citing Xpress benefits in taking cars off the road. Itsprobably OK as far as staying in the budget.

Senate Appropriations Chairman Jack Hill lives 200 miles from Atlanta, but saidhe wouldnt mind state tax dollars running Xpress.


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Atlanta is the economic engine of the state, and you know we dont need tomake decisions that clearly impede its progress, Hill said.

Singling out Xpress

Does that mean the door is open to funding other agencies? Not necessarily,said Toby Carr, the states transportation planning director, who reports to Deal.

The GRTA Xpress is a state project, Deal spokesman Brian Robinsonexplained in an email. The Cobb and Gwinnett buses are local initiatives.MARTA has a dedicated funding source, a 1 percent sales tax levied in Fultonand DeKalb counties just to fund MARTA.

All the same, considering funding for Xpress opened a Pandoras box ofcontroversy among transit agencies.

Butch McDuffie, director of Athens-Clarke Countys transit system, said fundingXpress was awesome. However, he said, if youre going to help out one urbantransit system, you should help out the rest.

Many of the Xpress lines rely on MARTA to provide stopping places and busesand trains to complete their passengers trips. Perhaps 10 percent of MARTAs123,000 daily riders are from suburban counties, according to regional figures.

MARTA has yearned for years for state funding in the face of fare hikes andservice cutbacks. MARTA Chairman Fred Daniels at first declined to comment onthe Xpress allocation. Later, he said that it was only helpful.

Its a positive sign really that the state is actually realizing the value of publictransportation, Daniels said. Emphasizing MARTAs impending businessoverhaul, he said, Once we achieve what I think will be fiscal sustainability in thenext few years, well stand ready for the state of Georgia to become a financialpartner with MARTA as well.

Its hard to say whether that will be enough to break through Capitol attitudes.

People do have opinions about MARTA, said Hill, the Senate Appropriationschairman. Whos to say whether MARTA will ever be expanded to where it really

needs to go, as long as its owned by the city of Atlanta, Fulton and DeKalb.

That is the kind of talk that drives some MARTA advocates crazy.

Efforts to establish a regional transit agency have stalled again and again overwho will control it and who will pay for it.


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The question would be how much of this subsidy is going to go to MARTA forproviding a destination for the GRTA buses, said Neill Herring, a lobbyist for theSierra Club. And the answer is, none.

Why fund transit

Some, like Herring, suspect the Xpress money really denotes politicalpragmatism from a Republican governor.

Ridership surveys dont show passengers political parties, but they showdifferent demographics.

Xpress riders are more affluent than all the other metro Atlanta transit services.Xpress passengers average household income is a bit under $75,000 a year,more than double Cobb and MARTA passengers.

All four services, including Xpress, serve a majority African-American ridership.

Almost all Xpress passengers are choice riders: More than 98 percent haveaccess to a car. For the other services, between a quarter and half of passengershave no access to a car.

Fite, the engineer, has access to three cars. He takes Xpress because I love it. Idont have to worry about the traffic. I can sleep or read; its very comfortable.

In contrast, Latasha Johnson, 30, takes MARTA to her job as a cashier atMorehouse College every day because she has no other option. But like Fite,

she believes the state should fund Xpress, as well as other agencies. Theyshould be merged, she said. As long as were going one way trying to takeone trip its all the same.

Deal and his spokesman say the issue is Xpress effectiveness againstcongestion.

It maintains a high ridership and therefore keeps significant numbers of cars offthe road, Robinson said.

Doug Hooker, director of the Atlanta Regional Commission, said it wasnt fair to

expect a governor to make the leap to comprehensive transit funding.

Well justhave to take it for what it is right now and see how the future goes, hesaid, but were certainly encouraged.

GRTA XPRESS9,000: daily passengers 12: counties containing Xpress park and ride lots 5 million: gallons of

gas saved per year by drivers off the road $24 million: annual budget $7 million: fare receipts $5million: ongoing federal funding


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Creative Loafing 2-25-13

Car-rental taxes could help fund transit under new Gold Dome proposal

Posted byThomas Wheat ley

Sponsor says legislation would allow use of car-rental taxes to construct

and improve transit

Georgia uses car-rental taxes to pay for sports stadiums and to promote tourism.

Why not use it to fund buses and rail?

A state Senate committee this morning gave its blessing tolegislation

sponsored by state Sen. Vincent Fort, D-Atlanta, that would allow using the levy

on rental cars for the "construction and improvement" of public transit.

The proposal comes on the heels of last summer's rejection of the controversial

T-SPLOST (R.I.P.) and the state's refusal to fund anything other than the

Georgia Regional Transportation Authority's Xpress bus system. And it's nothing

new.Cities such as Pittsburghuse car-rental tax proceeds to help fund public

transit.

Fort says the proposal makes sense.

"We're not going begging, hat in hand, to the state [for funding]," Fort tells CL.

"This is people who come in town and rent cars paying a little bit more to create a

stream of revenue for mass transit."

Currently, Atlanta's car-rental tax helps pay off debt on Philips Arena. Fort
http://clatl.com/atlanta/ArticleArchives?author=1224229http://clatl.com/atlanta/ArticleArchives?author=1224229http://clatl.com/atlanta/ArticleArchives?author=1224229http://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/en-US/Display/20132014/SB/92http://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/en-US/Display/20132014/SB/92http://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/en-US/Display/20132014/SB/92http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/transportation/increased-transit-fares-drink-tax-car-rental-levy-all-go-into-effect-374040/http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/transportation/increased-transit-fares-drink-tax-car-rental-levy-all-go-into-effect-374040/http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/transportation/increased-transit-fares-drink-tax-car-rental-levy-all-go-into-effect-374040/http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/transportation/increased-transit-fares-drink-tax-car-rental-levy-all-go-into-effect-374040/http://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/en-US/Display/20132014/SB/92http://clatl.com/atlanta/ArticleArchives?author=1224229


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stresses this legislation would not redirect any cash away from the arena's

obligations.

If passed, the city could consider slapping another percent on its car-rental tax to

generate bus and rail funding. That could possibly pay for new MARTA projects,

Atlanta Beltline transit, or downtown streetcar segments, among other projects.

However, the funding from the tax couldn't be used to operate existing bus or rail

lines.

The question is, how much would such a levy generate? Our gut tells us it'd

relatively small compared to other proposals. But when used in tandem with

other funding measures, it could make a difference. We're waiting on details. If

you have any information or factoids,let us knowor comment below.

The proposal's passage out of the Senate's Urban Affairs Committee is not too

surprising. (It's made up entirely of Democrats.) The measure's now in the

Rules Committee, waiting for a vote by the full state Senate. Considering that

state Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, has signed on to the proposal, we give it

good odds of at least getting a floor vote. Mullis chairs the upper chamber's

Rules Committee, which basically decides which pieces of legislation live or die

in the Senate
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.senate.ga.gov/committees/en-US/committee.aspx?Committee=131&Session=23http://www.senate.ga.gov/committees/en-US/committee.aspx?Committee=131&Session=23http://www.senate.ga.gov/committees/en-US/committee.aspx?Committee=131&Session=23http://www.senate.ga.gov/committees/en-US/committee.aspx?Committee=131&Session=23mailto:[email protected]


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Transit

New York Times 2-24-13

After M.T.A. Setbacks, No-Swipe Fare Cards Are Still Stuck in the FutureByMATT FLEGENHEIMER

For nearly 50 years, coins were the currency in New Yorks subway and bussystem. Tokens carried the next 40 years, until theMetroCardfirst slid into riderswallets in 1993. The next big thing was to be a contactless fare card no swiperequired.

It was to be one of the defining accomplishments ofJay H. Walder, who, beforebecoming chairman of theMetropolitan Transportation Authorityin 2009,oversaw in London the introduction of the Oyster card, which used a computerchip to track fares and account balances for riders. Mr. Walder spoke excitedly

about the prospects of a similar card during his early days on the job in NewYork.

You can see creative and innovative things that would happen with this, he saidthen, adding that even the fare system itself could be overhauled with the cards,allowing the authority to offer discounts depending on the time of day.

Yet agency officials now concede that the MetroCard, which the authority hadonce hoped to phase out as early as 2012, is not going anywhere anytime soon,despite the rising cost of maintaining the system. And no one is quite sure whatwill replace it.

At an authority committee meeting last month, officials suggested that a singleunfortunate bet had disrupted the project: While other transit agencies invested incontactless payment systems that they would construct themselves, the authorityhad hoped to evade the burden and cost of building its own. So the agencyplanned to replace MetroCards with riders own contactless bank cards,embedded with computer chips to facilitate fare payment without a swipe.

But banks did not issue the cards widely enough in recent years, officials said,scuttling a plan to introduce a new system as early as 2012.

The setback has placed New York City behind the pace of emerging contactless

transit systems in cities like Chicago and even Philadelphia where tokenshave long been prevalent burdening an already aging system with a fare cardthat officials say costs too much and does too little.

This is a real setback, Andrew Albert, a member of the authoritys board, said.Weve got to get away from this thing already.
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The authority said a new system would be put into effect within three to fiveyears. Any further delay could prove perilous; officials have said that the currentMetroCard system cannot be maintained beyond 2019.

Michael DeVitto, the vice president and program executive for fare paymentprograms at New York City Transit, said there was no linkage between theestimates for the new system and the expected breakdown of the MetroCard. Hesaid he could not envision any scenario in which the authority would spendmore money to extend the MetroCards stay.

Mr. DeVitto said the authority still expected to avoid building its own system, andwould rely instead on a third-party device. But it is unclear what form that mighttake. Options the authority has mentioned recently, besides a smart card, includea key fob or a cellphone payment system.

The authority will also need to accommodate riders without access to bank cardsor cellphones. Were still working that out, Mr. DeVitto said.

The authority said it could not immediately calculate how much had been spenton the smart-card project already, or how much it expected to spend to replacethe MetroCard.

A capital plan released under Mr. Walder, who left the authority in 2011, calledfor $247 million to introduce a new fare payment system while maintaining theMetroCard system for as long as necessary.

Some experts suggested that the MetroCards persistence could be a symptomof agency turnover. When Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo names a replacement for the

most recent chairman,Joseph J. Lhota, who quitto run for mayor, the authoritywill have its fourth chairman since 2009.

When a new person comes in, they have to reassess. Its only responsible ofthem, said Richard Barone, the director of transportation programs for theRegional Plan Association, a research and advocacy group. Obviously, it slowsthings down.

In recent years, as the authority cycled through chairmen, the programs standingappeared to vacillate between a leading long-term priority and a deferrable luxuryexpense. Though the first pilot to replace the MetroCard began in 2006, whenPeter Kalikow and Katherine Lapp led the authority, the idea became somethingof a pet cause for Mr. Walder.

He helped execute a successful regional pilot in 2010 that allowed some riders totap a single smart card to ride parts of the subway, bus, PATH train and NewJersey Transit systems.

A news release announcing that program called the MetroCard outdated. Butwhen Mr. Walder resigned suddenly the next year as he accepted a private-
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sector job in Hong Kong, the smart card lost its most vocal cheerleader. Hissuccessor, Mr. Lhota, shuffled the structure of the projects team, transferringmanagement responsibilities from the authoritys headquarters to its individualagencies, like New York City Transit and the commuter railroads.

One of the projects catalysts, Charles Monheim, the authoritys former chiefoperating officer, also left the agency during Mr. Lhotas tenure. Mr. DeVitto saidhe did not believe the turnover had hindered the project. Mr. Walder and Mr.Lhota declined to be interviewed for this article.

Under the less centralized plan, some agencies have made ground. The Metro-North Railroad and Long Island Rail Road are seeking proposals from companiesto develop an app to allow riders to buy tickets by phone, then display them ontheir screens for ticket agents to scan.

But for subway riders, progress has been difficult to gauge. The tacticalapproach is what were now revising, Mr. DeVitto said. You dont see

construction going on. Its not visible.

Few at the agency have bemoaned plans for the MetroCards demise. Producingthe cards alone costs nearly $10 million per year, and an authority spokesmansaid the systems 2,200 vending machines were magnets for vandals whodisable them so they can have more impetus to sell you an illegal swipe .

An authority pamphlet from 2010 estimated that the M.T.A. spends 15 cents ofeach fare dollar just to sell or collect that fare. Less calculable, if equallymaddening, are the delays caused by riders failed swipes at subway entrancesand their card-dipping aboard buses.

All the while, the authority waits for the governor to name its new leader. Theacting chairman, Fernando Ferrer, has made clear that he expects to be rid ofthe responsibilities shortly. Asked last month what he would like to see replacethe MetroCard, Mr. Ferrer demurred. I remember the little tokens that are nowpart of my cuff links, he said. So I just got used to the MetroCard.

Then he clarified: Im not suggesting we go back to the tokens.

marta news clips 2-25-13

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