Escapes the clutches of the budget axe-holding coyote once again...
Posted on 07/15/2011 7:22:37 PM PDT by CedarDave
ALBUQUERQUE - It appears that weekend train service on the New Mexico Rail Runner Express won't get the axe this summer after all.
Officials with the Rio Metro Regional Transit District today directed staff to go back to the drawing board and find another way to make up an estimated $1.2 million shortfall in the train budget for the current fiscal year.
Members voted to consolidate late-night southbound trains on weekdays, replace the earliest northbound trains with a bus, and other schedule changes they estimate will save $1.4 million in operating costs.
"If we are ever going to make this train a viable sustainable train, we have got to have weekend service," said board chairman Larry Abraham, mayor of Ranchos de Albuquerque.
The board expects to discuss potential fare increases as soon as September and will convene a task force to look at long-term budget issues involving the Rail Runner.
(Excerpt) Read more at santafenewmexican.com ...
Escapes the clutches of the budget axe-holding coyote once again...
Maybe they should raise their $2.50 fares cover it, maybe $300 a ticket would do it? Probably not.
This money guzling white elephant should be seen as a colossal embarrassment to New Mexico.
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It’s all about appearances. It’s “High Speed Rail” and that has to be good .... how could you possibly be against it? As long as it appears to be successful that should be enough for the unwashed commoners.
The way for that train to ever be viable and sustainable is to shut it down.
Has anyone considered taxing the counties it serves.
A sales tax dedicated to transit (Rail Runner and connecting buses) passed in 2008 in all counties the RR serves. The Obama drones who came out to elect him also pulled the “yes” lever for the Rail Runner tax. However, it was assumed that farebox recovery would be more than the current (reported) 13%.
It’s all about appearances. It’s “High Speed Rail” and that has to be good .... how could you possibly be against it? As long as it appears to be successful that should be enough for the unwashed commoners.
It’s a “Progressive” masterpiece, don’t you see.
Officials with the Rio Metro Regional Transit District today directed staff to go back to the drawing board and find another way to make up an estimated $1.2 million shortfall in the train budget for the current fiscal year.
I’d guess that the pig Richardson is pulling in more than $1.2 million. Tie that SOB to the front of the train and hit a moose. Presto! The budget shortfall is solved.
Tonight I watched someone on the RTD board suggesting
that everyone in the state support the RR.
Heck, in the oil patch we have narrow two-lane state highways with no shoulders that carry many semis and over-width trucks to drilling and well locations. These provide the cash the state runs on. Maybe we'd support the empty RR if they'd first rebuild some of the roads down here.
LOL !
Think of it as taxpayer scaffolding to prop up the socialist dream.
Cut out the rush hour trains. That should save enough to keep the late night service on weekends.
In 2009 the rail runner fares covered 14% of the operating costs and it is about the same today. The operating costs don’t even take into account the $400 million in capital costs that the taxpayers are on the hook for. The save the railrunner obamabots argue that we should raise the fare a bit (I’ll pay a dollar more each way, even though that does nothing) and that other forms of transportation are subsidized by the taxpayers (roads, airports) despite that “subsidy” being 5 percent or less and for the benefit of all taxpayers while the railrunner serves privileged government workers who live in albuquerque and commute to Santa Fe. The obamabots also argue that it helps with congestion on I25 but given the ridership and my eyes, it won’t do anything and the traffic “problem” is mild.
The funny part is that they’re replacing some services with buses which they should have done from the start. $400 million, interest payments on the $400 million, and a $20 million annual subsidy would buy lots of buses.
“””officials are facing a shortfall is because a federal grant that helped subsidize operations is ending this year. Another $5 million from the feds will drop out of the revenue stream in the next fiscal year”””-—sounds like a classic definition of socialism. The project works great until you run out of other people’s money.
I can’t see govt. wonks taking a bus to Santa Fe.
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