Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Day of Reckoning at PAT
Fare increases, service cuts, and layoffs. It is nothing we have not heard before from the Port Authority; in fact, it has become almost an annual occurrence. But with a new Executive at the helm and the recommendations from the Governor’s Transportation Commission in, it appears that the long overdue changes at PAT might go into effect.
The details on which routes will go and what fares will look like will be determined as the process moves forward with public hearings likely to be very animated. This much we know: weekday routes will fall by half and the layoffs, to number around 400, will fall on labor and management.
That’s quite a change from the attitude that all was well when elected officials intervened to thwart the Port Authority’s plan to outsource 20 percent of operations to the private sector through competitive contracting like the system in Denver has done. Indeed for years management and employees have denied they were inefficient and not cost-effective and proceeded to expand service even when ridership was flat or falling. For too long, PAT was able to continue to receive funds that covered up the massive problems that were developing.
At last there is recognition that the system is simply too expensive for the region and that changes, regardless of what funding reform comes from Harrisburg, will happen. Too bad this attitude did not prevail when the authority engaged in expensive boondoggle after expensive boondoggle and inertia kept the North Shore Connector going through its groundbreaking.
The details on which routes will go and what fares will look like will be determined as the process moves forward with public hearings likely to be very animated. This much we know: weekday routes will fall by half and the layoffs, to number around 400, will fall on labor and management.
That’s quite a change from the attitude that all was well when elected officials intervened to thwart the Port Authority’s plan to outsource 20 percent of operations to the private sector through competitive contracting like the system in Denver has done. Indeed for years management and employees have denied they were inefficient and not cost-effective and proceeded to expand service even when ridership was flat or falling. For too long, PAT was able to continue to receive funds that covered up the massive problems that were developing.
At last there is recognition that the system is simply too expensive for the region and that changes, regardless of what funding reform comes from Harrisburg, will happen. Too bad this attitude did not prevail when the authority engaged in expensive boondoggle after expensive boondoggle and inertia kept the North Shore Connector going through its groundbreaking.
