I knew there would probably be more, it isn’t like people are actually becoming re-employed. Most of the people who pay the taxes (i.e. upper incomes) that actually pay the bulk of TriMet’s costs haven’t increased employment in the area either. So no matter what way one looks at things, more cuts are coming.
So I wasn’t terribly surprised when I saw this list of frequency cuts. But at the same time I wanted to know when this list came up. Rightfully they haven’t cut any rush hour services on these routes, but even these off hours seem like they’re really starting to stretch for areas to cuts. I know also that MAX isn’t in this round of cuts, and rightfully so as it is cheap to operate compared to buses. Going car-less and moving back downtown is definitely going to help cope with these cuts, as I will barely need transit for anything really, but it is getting kind of awkward.
It seems TriMet needs to get a grip on things and maybe start cutting something besides actual transit service.
$1.8 Billion for ALMOST 10k jobs (re: Oregonian)
That pans out to $180,000 dollars per job – WTF?! I doubt many of those are economically sustainable, useful, or even needed. The bailouts are extending our uselessness as a nation and perpetuating our inability to generate actual wealth (i.e. create something vs. just shift money around). These types of numbers, also not surprising, are still unsettling no matter how prepared I am for them.
As Oregon has blown through $1.8 Billion, and gotten dozens of millions for random work around the transit system, the state can’t seem to manage to get a measly $23-26 million to TriMet to stave off these service reductions. Yo, politicians WTF are you doing? You guys break laws and distort all sorts of legal lines to push money into less legitimate things than transit all the time. Get on the ball and get the buses moving again – at least on the frequent service lines.
Anyway, that’s all I got for today. Go have fun on Halloween… because I’m just loitering about and observing the mayhem! : )