what do u think transit agency's in the DMV should do with stimulus money

[wmata employee]

Can u give an input on what u think agency' should do with the money that president  is giving out . What would u do with money?

[Perry]

You can only do so much with it, it's capital funds, so whatever plans that are on the table for building something and fit within the parameters of the funds you're getting is what you do with it.  Can you build the Silver Line with it? Probably not, but they can apply it to it and then it's less other funds that go into it.

The stimulus coming out is no big deal.  Remember this is getting split up pretty good and the net amount going to any particular transit system is good, but not great.  Sure it's better than receiving nothing, but I'm not impressed so far.

[Tritransit Area]

Definitely so, Perry.  The stimulus package, while nice to have, is essentially peanuts.  Don't expect it to fund the construction of the Purple Line or anything grand like that.

With SEPTA's portion, they essentially are doing station rehabs, painting poles, replacing rail, and installing fiber optics.  Oh, and they are getting 40 more of my least favorite buses, the 8100 (well, I guess now 8200) series hybrid New Flyers.

I wouldn't be surprised if WMATA used the money to purchase more BRT buses, rehabilitate some stations, continue to install the LED platform lights, and then to bump up some other capital projects, perhaps towards the Silver Line.

[Perry]

Yeah, here in LV we're using a lot of the money to just repave roads because it was so small you couldn't do any one huge project, so they just chose to do a bunch of little ones.  It will help to fund the Boulder Hwy BRT, but only help, not fund the whole thing.

So much money went to highways and away from transit that very little will get done other than rehab projects like you mentioned.  Sure it's better than dipping into their own funds, but it had the makings to be something huge, but instead got cluttered with other pork.

[LandoverDivision]

Here's what I say. WMATA should NOT buy more new buses. Instead, use the money to fill in the budget gap, saving jobs and saving money. Another reason they should do this so that they won't increase fares and lower service.

[Scrabbleship]

Here's what I say. WMATA should NOT buy more new buses.

And divert them to other agencies? They can't just welch out of the contract they made with New Flyer, easy as that theoretically would be.

Another reason they should do this so that they won't increase fares and lower service.

I think that a little fare increase on the bus side would not hurt anyone. Perhaps $1.35/$1.50 for bus and $1.50/$2.00/$2.50 for rail. Even with WMATA's hostility towards monthly and joint bus/rail passes, our fares are still lower than most of the nation.

Between this and MARC's refusal to ever entertain a fare increase before service cuts, I wonder why fare increases seem like a unspeakable word around here.

[79MetroExtraMD]

Here's what I say. WMATA should NOT buy more new buses. Instead, use the money to fill in the budget gap, saving jobs and saving money. Another reason they should do this so that they won't increase fares and lower service.

It's wise to buy new buses to reduce the MDBF (Mean Distance Between Failure) for the whole fleet. The Flxs, although we love them so much, have higher maintenance costs which can take a toll when alot of them start breaking down (especially in the summer months). With new buses, the maintenance costs would be lower and they can go a better distance before failures. Also, there is that 12 year Altoona thing and the 93-94s are over 18 years old, well over the 12 year limit.

[Perry]

The Altonna testing is for new buses that have never been opeated by anyone.  The 12 year policy is mandated by FTA as far as funding obligations.  An agency can keep the vehicles as long as they want, it's just that there are no funding implications for retiring them at that point.

Actually it's 12 years or 500,000 miles.  Some systems just find it cheaper to maintain those vehicles than purchase new ones, but once you get to 15-20 years, they are so outdated that I don't see the benefit.

[Tritransit Area]

Here's what I say. WMATA should NOT buy more new buses. Instead, use the money to fill in the budget gap, saving jobs and saving money. Another reason they should do this so that they won't increase fares and lower service.

Not possible.  The stimulus money is ONLY for capital projects, not for operations.  The sad thing is that many systems out there are struggling to balance their budgets for the next fiscal year, with major deficits.  They get all of this capital money to buy new equipment or fix up the insfrastructure, but they have to cut service and layoff employees.

Ironic - The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, which is supposed to create jobs, won't save existing jobs, both of the transit employees and the people that rely on transit to get to work...

[Scrabbleship]

Whoever wrote the text of The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act should be fired from their job. This sounds so depressing and a situation that could have been avoided.

All of the stimulus downers make me wish we had no stimulus and that it was 2007 again before transit started to collapse.

[Perry]

Well, the reasons why transit is having such a hard time is most of the funding that is associated for it is shrinking (sales tax revenues, gas tax revenues, lack of people to use the system since they're all unemployed which is causing the other things I mentioned to fall).  In theory the stimulus package was a good idea, but how many people is a road project going to put to work that already isn't, you know? 

Transit got the short end of the stick because it was so limited in scope because there are only so many new garages, park and ride facilities or anything else capital that a transit system does other than a huge rail project that won't get the necessary funding for the whole thing can build. 

We just have to ride this wave and get through it ourselves without the Government constantly feeling the need to do what they think we think is best.  I don't need the $30/week tax decrease that I'm getting especially since it's just a loan until I fill out my taxes next year.  I'm not buying anything else that I wouldn't already do just because of that. 

I've gone way off topic and I apologize, but I'm feeling a little frustrated right now.