[t-i] Salt Lake Tribune: Why UTA needs a new system of governance

[Jerry Schneider]

FYI --

>Professor Ransom does an excellent job articulating the major
>failures of UTA in this guest editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune.BB
>
><http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_15135956?source=email>Why UTA
>needs a new system of governance -
>
>By Michael Ransom
>
>The annual season of outrage over the compensation of the Utah
>Transit Authority's top managers is upon us. I was not surprised to
>learn that John Inglish, UTA's general manager, received almost
>$175,000 in performance bonuses during the past four years, $43,000
>in this year alone, on top of a
><http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_15135956?source=email>View Full Story


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[Jerry Roane]

Jerry

Even though he does do an excellent job of saying what is crazy about the one salary he fails to get to the heart of the problem and that is wasting millions using outdated vehicles and approaches.  It is common for critics to climb on the compensation bandwagon and passing up the big picture of the total money misapplied.  The compensation package is the least of the costs and the least important of the topics of what is wrong with "transit".  I avoid the word transit like the plague and only use the terms mobility or transportation.  Transit is a joke and everyone knows this.  What is sad is the paratransit customers who depend on these guys for their quality of life and then a highly paid guy like this lets his ego divert money from moving handicapped persons to the doctor to shiny empty railroad equipment. 

What needs to happen with those bucks is energy efficient, pollution free, solar powered, fast service for everyone including those using paratransit.  The current approach will not accomplish the goals.  Paying this one guy a few hundred thousand more or a few hundred thousand dollars less will not change the foundation of the problem.  If this guy was worth his salary he would innovate and provide the fast (faster than standing taxi service) transportation that people need and want.

Jerry Roane 

[Jerry Schneider]

At 04:39 PM 5/24/2010, you wrote:
>Jerry
>
>Even though he does do an excellent job of saying what is crazy
>about the one salary he fails to get to the heart of the problem and
>that is wasting millions using outdated vehicles and approaches. It
>is common for critics to climb on the compensation bandwagon and
>passing up the big picture of the total money misapplied. The
>compensation package is the least of the costs and the least
>important of the topics of what is wrong with "transit". I avoid
>the word transit like the plague and only use the terms mobility or
>transportation. Transit is a joke and everyone knows this. What is
>sad is the paratransit customers who depend on these guys for their
>quality of life and then a highly paid guy like this lets his ego
>divert money from moving handicapped persons to the doctor to shiny
>empty railroad equipment.
>
>What needs to happen with those bucks is energy efficient, pollution
>free, solar powered, fast service for everyone including those using
>paratransit. The current approach will not accomplish the
>goals. Paying this one guy a few hundred thousand more or a few
>hundred thousand dollars less will not change the foundation of the
>problem. If this guy was worth his salary he would innovate and
>provide the fast (faster than standing taxi service) transportation
>that people need and want.

I think it is probable that the problem is the Board of Directors -
the UTA manager is just doing what they want him to do and that is
why they are willing to raise his salary. If he tried to do something
innovative, he would probably not get the approval of the Board and
not get a raise.

[Bruce Attah]

"UTA's bus system generates only about 1.29 passenger mile for each
vehicle mile"

Wow. Just -- wow.

And did you see the comment someone entered?

"Frontrunner is not 'poorly utilized', Mr. Ransom. During peak hours
it is used heavily, and it averages 5,300 people per day . . ."

Shows how easy it is to scam the public with transit schemes. As long
as the taxpaying public have no concept of what level of ridership is
required in order to cover O&M (never mind capital costs), vendors can
keep on chuckling as they stuff their pockets.

Oddly, if a government proposed to give a free limousine to every
person who bought a ticket, there'd be an uproar of complaint.

This is why public transport doesn't get any better -- it's too easy
to make money by wasting money.

[Dennis Manning]

Something doesn't seem right in the ridership numbers. It's not clear what
system the author is talking about when he gives the figure of 1.29 average
passengers per mile and 2.17 average passengers per mile as the national
average. Fresno's bus system has about 7 riders on average. The article says
UTA gets 17% of operating expenses at the fare box. Fresno gets 24%. I can't
believe Fresno's bus system gets about 5 times the ridership but only does
7% better at the fare box, or that our bus system ridership is about 3 times
higher than the national average. Hmmm. Anyone have a guess.

Also you might find it of interest to read (see link on the left of the main
page) "UTA Audit". Very illuminating.

Dennis

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Jerry Schneider" <j...@peak.org>
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2010 1:41 PM
To: <transport-...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [t-i] Salt Lake Tribune: Why UTA needs a new system of governance

[Jerry Roane]

Dennis

I do my own ad hoc research here every time I see a CapMetro bus.  I audibly count the heads on the bus and comment to whoever is in the car how few riders are on the bus.  Austin ranks very low on bus systems in pseudo-major cities (#15 nationwide).  We have a new head of the bus because they tossed the last one.  There are a few spare millions that CapMetro owed the city that will not be paid.  It was news for about a week and now we hear nothing about it.  The head of CAMPO is resigning and it is hard to know what deals were cut with no continuity.  I do know the 2035 transportation plan is laughable and the vote for or against it was tonight.  I couldn't bear to go. 

Jerry Roane

[Kirston Henderson]

on 5/24/10 7:20 PM, Jerry Schneider at j...@peak.org wrote:

> I think it is probable that the problem is the Board of Directors -
> the UTA manager is just doing what they want him to do and that is
> why they are willing to raise his salary. If he tried to do something
> innovative, he would probably not get the approval of the Board and
> not get a raise.

The fellow may well be doing an excellent job of managing a system that
he inherited and must continue to operate. This transit system, like almost
all other transit systems in the country took that a "free Federal money" to
buy buses and build what is likely a nearly useless LRT system and find
themselves in the usual trap of being forced to either continue to operate
the system or return the Federal money that they have no way to return
because they have spent of it. Hence, they are forced to make the best of
an impossible situation and keep the system operating without breaking the
backs of the local taxpayers.

That is a tough job that I would not want.

Kirston Henderson
MegaRail® Transportation Systems, Inc.

[Kirston Henderson]

on 5/24/10 8:48 PM, Bruce Attah at bruce...@googlemail.com wrote:

> "UTA's bus system generates only about 1.29 passenger mile for each
> vehicle mile"
>
> Wow. Just -- wow.
>

Actually they are doing pretty well in that category. I remember seeing
some numbers from the Dallas Area DART system annual report for 2009 that I
believe showed an average of less than one person per transit vehicle mile.

Unfortunately, public transit systems must operate for much of the day
and night rather than just during the rush hour. For example, during those
off-hours, it is not unusual to see a Fort Worth city bus operating with no
one aboard except the lonely driver. I see that situation often.

Kirston Henderson
MegaRail® Transportation Systems, Inc.

[Kirston Henderson]

on 5/24/10 3:41 PM, Jerry Schneider at j...@peak.org wrote:

> FYI --
>
>> Professor Ransom does an excellent job articulating the major
>> failures of UTA in this guest editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune.BB
>>
>> <http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_15135956?source=email>Why UTA
>> needs a new system of governance -
>>
>> By Michael Ransom

Jerry,

Thanks for posting this one. It is a real classic!

Kirston Henderson
MegaRail® Transportation Systems, Inc.

[Jack Slade]

I find it interesting that these people think it is economical, or environmentally friendly, to use a bus or railway car that costs about $1/4 million to move that few passengers on a per-mile basis. Taxis probably do better than that, and I would expect better also from a PRT vehicle that costs even less than the taxi.
I would also bet that the driver gets paid much better on a transit system than the raxi driver does.

Jack Slade

--- On Tue, 5/25/10, Dennis Manning <john.m...@comcast.net> wrote:

[Kirston Henderson]

on 5/25/10 1:54 AM, Jack Slade at skytr...@rogers.com wrote:

> I find it interesting that these people think it is economical, or
> environmentally friendly, to use a bus or railway car that costs about $1/4
> million to move that few passengers on a per-mile basis. Taxis probably do
> better than that, and I would expect better also from a PRT vehicle that costs
> even less than the taxi.
> I would also bet that the driver gets paid much better on a transit system
> than the raxi driver does.

As I recall, they put in the LRT system so that they could be a better
showplace for the winter Olympic games and because some died in the wool LRT
supporters convinced the Utah DoT that building the lines would lessen the
amount of money that they would need for freeways. I understood at the time
from a discussion with high level DoT officials that they were contributing
money for the LRT.

Kirston Henderson
MegaRail®