Public Transit News / Current Events (MN only)

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jebr
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby jebr » February 21st, 2017, 9:07 pm

Taking a look at the 2015 Fact Book for Metro Transit, it appears 24.8% of their revenue comes from fares. That's not much better, but it is still a fair amount better. The Met Council's is likely lower as it includes contracted routes and (probably more significantly) Metro Mobility and Transit Link. I see a lot of Metro Mobility buses around here, and I'm sure it's not cheap to run those buses. Ideally I'd like to see a 30-35% cost recovery ratio on the Metro Transit routes.

The 80% bill is just dumb. If nothing else, make all regular route service do it in the state. I can't imagine the rural route service or dial-a-ride services are even getting 17% farebox recovery.

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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby SkyScraperKid » February 21st, 2017, 10:28 pm

Taking a look at the 2015 Fact Book for Metro Transit, it appears 24.8% of their revenue comes from fares. That's not much better, but it is still a fair amount better. The Met Council's is likely lower as it includes contracted routes and (probably more significantly) Metro Mobility and Transit Link. I see a lot of Metro Mobility buses around here, and I'm sure it's not cheap to run those buses. Ideally I'd like to see a 30-35% cost recovery ratio on the Metro Transit routes.

The 80% bill is just dumb. If nothing else, make all regular route service do it in the state. I can't imagine the rural route service or dial-a-ride services are even getting 17% farebox recovery.
so that would mean it would have to be about x3 the rate it is now? So a bus fare during rush hour would be $6.75? and $13.50 for a round trip work day? ...wait a second, is it just me or does that look like a tax on the poor? Or am I doing my rough math wrong?

Also if that policy was extended to roadways would that increase any existing taxes or do roadways already recover 80% of cost ratio. I mean they must right?

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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Anondson » February 21st, 2017, 10:42 pm

Local streets are paid by property taxes. The gas tax, license tabs and vehicle sales taxes do not pay for 80% of state aid roads and highways. Not sure the exact amount but a large portion is the general fund (so income taxes are a big chunk?) and debt and bonds.

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Silophant
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Silophant » February 21st, 2017, 10:56 pm

so that would mean it would have to be about x3 the rate it is now? So a bus fare during rush hour would be $6.75? and $13.50 for a round trip work day? ...wait a second, is it just me or does that look like a tax on the poor? Or am I doing my rough math wrong?
Nope, that's exactly what it is.
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RailBaronYarr
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby RailBaronYarr » February 22nd, 2017, 10:19 am

Local streets are paid by property taxes. The gas tax, license tabs and vehicle sales taxes do not pay for 80% of state aid roads and highways. Not sure the exact amount but a large portion is the general fund (so income taxes are a big chunk?) and debt and bonds.
(oy. long, exhaustive post alert)

This argument gets very tricky depending on how you slice it. Statewide, user fees (including federal gas tax, state gas tax/MVST/registration) cover pretty damn close to what *MnDOT* spends on trunk highways, county and state aid roads through the HUTD. I'll admit to sympathizing with someone who looks at a MnDOT budget and sees it basically in the black and thinks user fees cover expenses (but admitting we've been delaying maintenance so we just gotta spend a tiny bit more). When you throw in all the local streets and local funding for CSAH/MSAS streets, that user fee:spend ratio drops to 40-50%. Remember, that's statewide.

Now, if we look at the entire metro area (taken in this case as MnDOT's Metro District), I think that's a better comparison to a transit agency that only serves commuting and regular trips within the metro (even if more limited than our road coverage). User fees generated in-district are greater than spend. I dug into 2014 numbers by summing all reported MSAS, CSAH, and Trunk Highway (which includes distribution from the federal gov't) spending within the district ($832m), and also did a rough calculation of user fees (MVST & license by metro district population % of state's total * total revenues of those sources, gas tax using reported metro district VMT/avg mpg * state + federal gas tax). That came to $1.4 billion. I'ts $1.1 billion if you cut out the federal gas tax. Some of that goes to other local uses (ex. 40% of the MVST), and some of it goes to subsidize the rest of the state.

And of course, local governments are still spending tons of money building and maintaining local streets and their share of CSAH/MSAS. So that "farebox recovery" would obviously shift negative, but in the metro I'm not sure how much below 80% it'd go. Honestly, in big metros where there are millions of people driving long, but not TOO long, distances every day in their car... user fees are quite high. A 4 lane death road doesn't cost much more to build than a 2- or 3-lane one when you factor everything in. A suburban arterial doesn't cost much more than a Lyndale Ave. Hell, it might cost less since they don't put in real sidewalks or ped lighting or street trees or bus stops. It's why Minneapolis is denser than Bloomington or Edina but our public works budget per capita is still higher (and that doesn't even count transit ops/capital). The obvious problem with a gas tax/etc vs highway cost view is that it ignores if the resulting tax base from a car-oriented land use can cover the local roads and pipes. And that there are things not included in a DOT's transportation budget like safety, pollution, climate change, making the bottom 20% of people who can't afford cars not able to have equitable access to opportunity, etc etc.

Bringing this back to transit - that proposal is mostly bad, but it's okay to have mixed feelings. It's an obvious rural/exurban swipe at poor (minority) people and they don't really want better transit through improving finances but rather no transit because they don't really care who's screwed. On the other hand, we don't need to be transit sycophants to oppose the idea behind it. There are cities in first-world countries where transit revenues come much closer to covering (operating) costs. Some of that has to do with land uses that support more all-day trips in more directions. A lot of it has to do with the cost of owning and operating a car being higher - making transit and living in transit-friendly places a more natural option. Some of it has to do with our federal requirements (ex. Buy America for bus purchases, and on). Some of it has to do with transit governance and operations, things like:
- Competitively bidding routes with private operators
- Wider stop spacing (reduces ops cost per revenue mile)
- All-door boarding (same)
- Transit signal priority at lights, even for regular routes (same)
- Cheap improvements that make waiting for transit more informative and comfortable, therefore attractive
- [maybe the biggest] Ratcheting back on employee pay/benefits (this is hard to compare how good they had/have it vs our PPP salary/benefits for transit workers)

Anyway, it's hard to hear the GOP constantly pull this shit. But it's also hard to hear how we can't do it here. Metro Transit operates in environs that aren't THAT incomparable to random German towns. Why can they get 77% FRR across an entire country while ours is 25%? Hell, even some of our most productive bus routes through the densest parts of Minneapolis don't hit 77% total - so it's not like the answer is getting the lower-ridership ones more full of people. And in case you're wondering, I don't think covering more ops cost with fares is a goal unto itself, merely it would be indicative of a successful transit agency providing a greater share of residents' total trips at a higher level of service (frequency, coverage, span, etc). To that point, I don't even really care if the user pays 0% of the operating cost - a city or county could just cover that existing share from our property taxes, which would be more equitable anyway. I could drive for literally miles around Minneapolis or Lakeville and only be paying 14% (or less!) of that road's costs in "user fees" by staying on local and MSAS streets, but nobody from the GOP gives a damn. Why should anyone?

jebr
Nicollet Mall
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby jebr » February 22nd, 2017, 10:48 am

Route changes for March 4 released: https://www.metrotransit.org/these-rout ... on-march-4

Largest changes I'm finding:
Route 7: Weekend/holiday service to Historic Fort Snelling, connecting to the Blue Line at 46th and Fort Snelling. It will be nice to not have to do the mile walk when visiting there, but they'll likely have 2-3 months of pretty empty buses on that segment until Fort Snelling opens Memorial Day weekend.
Route 10: First, the summary of this change is false - each branch is changing from 20 minutes to 30 minutes during midday. This is being done by changing one of every 3 buses to a 10H, ending at 53rd and SuperTarget.
Route 16: Frequency and span of service reduced. It's now only running every 30 minutes throughout the day, and late night trips are being eliminated. Late evening trips are also stopping at University and Fairview.

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Silophant
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Silophant » February 22nd, 2017, 10:58 am

Distressing to see so many "service reduced" changes.

Except on Route 16. Time to dump that entirely.
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Tcmetro
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Tcmetro » February 22nd, 2017, 11:06 am

I'm also noticing a service cut on the 5.

Weekdays cut from every 7 to every 10 minutes.
Saturdays from every 7 to every 12 minutes.
Sundays from every 10-15 to every 12-15 minutes.

Other frequency cuts on the 4, 63, and 515.
Last three trips on the 115 being cut are a little surprising. I thought this route was decently productive.
The rest seem to be specific trip cuts at peak hours. Cutting one or two trips from peak expresses can have some significant impacts on the schedule, but allow for a lot more efficiency in allocating drivers.

intercomnut
Rice Park
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby intercomnut » February 22nd, 2017, 11:55 am

Distressing to see so many "service reduced" changes.

Except on Route 16. Time to dump that entirely.
It's distressing, but at least they're doing what they need to do to weather the budget storm and ensure they can run all their service (given the current operator shortage).

jebr
Nicollet Mall
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby jebr » February 22nd, 2017, 11:56 am

Just throwing this out there: how may of the changes are due to budgetary issues and how many may be due to issues with hiring drivers? I've seen Metro Transit push pretty hard to try and find new drivers, and there's been a few comments on Metro Transit's Facebook page indicating some buses not running.

DanPatchToget
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby DanPatchToget » February 23rd, 2017, 12:41 pm

What happened to the 54 extension north?

intercomnut
Rice Park
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby intercomnut » February 23rd, 2017, 12:45 pm

What happened to the 54 extension north?
I think it's coming online this year.

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Tiller
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Tiller » February 23rd, 2017, 12:50 pm

We were supposed to get it last year, though now it's allegedly slated for this summer. I hope it's not delayed again because of Metro Transit's budget shortfall.

bptenor
Nicollet Mall
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby bptenor » February 23rd, 2017, 1:47 pm

I'd use the 54 extension all the time. I hope it's not delayed again.

Vagueperson
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Vagueperson » February 23rd, 2017, 8:30 pm

I also hope it's not delayed. Last I heard it was for this summer. I also heard it will require rebuilding the corner of Maryland and Arcade - specifically the Walgreen sign - so the bus can make the turn.

https://www.google.com/maps/@44.977567, ... 312!8i6656

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FISHMANPET
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby FISHMANPET » February 24th, 2017, 5:08 pm

Image

Rube Dali
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Rube Dali » February 27th, 2017, 5:39 pm

This has bothered me for sometime, but the so-called temporary detour of route 68 on Jackson Street in St. Paul is still ongoing. I didn't get a clear response on why the detour was in effect when I asked an operator last year and an wondering when it will stop.
Buildings, what buildings?

intercomnut
Rice Park
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby intercomnut » February 27th, 2017, 7:05 pm

This has bothered me for sometime, but the so-called temporary detour of route 68 on Jackson Street in St. Paul is still ongoing. I didn't get a clear response on why the detour was in effect when I asked an operator last year and an wondering when it will stop.
If you email Metro Transit, they should be able to find the answer for you.

Tcmetro
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Tcmetro » March 4th, 2017, 10:39 am

Metro Transit has modified the West End plan, and is now recommending implementation for August.

Changes:

9 - Simplified to two branches; one to Louisiana/394, the other to Cedar Lake/Hopkins Crossroad. Peak service every 20 minutes, Off-peak service every 30 minutes. Peak and reverse peak service to Cedar Lake/Hopkins Crossroad provided by 643/663.

25 - Terminal from Lake/France moved to Cedar Lake Condos to replace Rt. 649. Replaces 9H service on 26th St. Reverse commute trips eliminated. Service from St. Louis Park and Kenwood will be reduced to 4 AM inbound and 4 PM outbound trips.

604 - No change in proposal. Shortened to Louisiana/394 and extending service span by one hour in both the morning and evening.

645 - No change in proposal. Rt. 675 will now stop at West End and will be renumbered to 645.

649 - Eliminated. Use Rt. 9 or 25.

Upcoming Open House:
West End and Route 9 Transit Study Open House: Recommended Plan
March 21, 2017, 5 - 6:30 p.m. (Presentation at 5:30 p.m.)
ICON Showplace Theater Community Room
1625 West End Boulevard,
St. Louis Park, MN 55416

https://www.metrotransit.org/west-end

Qhaberl
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Re: Public Transit News and Current Happenings

Postby Qhaberl » March 7th, 2017, 3:09 pm

http://finance-commerce.com/2017/03/tra ... akup-vote/. I saw the above article on finance and commerce. About a week ago, I read an article on the streets MN main fourm talking about the metro transit bus reductions. It mention that metro transit is currently facing and $80 million budget deficit. I noticed in the article from finance and commerce, that wants the CTIB is dissolved, Hennepin county would receive an additional $60 million per year. That would mean that metro transit's budget deficit would only be 20 million, correct?


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