Sorry for the hiatus folks, lots goin’ on. Hope everyone is having a happy and relaxing Easter weekend. Some interesting bits of news flying around, thought I would share…
The County Manager’s office has released its grant application for 2009 Federal Transit dollars (not stimulus related). MDT is requesting approximately $87 Million dollars for a variety of projects including metrorail maintenance ($80 Million) and bus-related improvements ($7 Million). I’m happy to see that they are not just raiding the CITT again, although it doesn’t address the basic funding problem MDT has which is that it doesn’t get its fair share of General Fund dollars.
The Transit Committee and the full Commission get these silly monthly Orange Line reports that don’t say anything substantive. Not to mention that a new plan for using the CITT dollars still hasn’t been created, and the only thing we taxpayers have to show for our half-cent contribution is a proposal for monthly or quarterly transit ‘summits’. Greaaaaat. Now they can tell remind us on a regular basis how they are mismanaging the transit system and wasting our money. I can’t wait.
I was happy to read that the County Manager is not going to renew Wackenhut’s contract to patrol transit stations (ahem, what ever happened to the police?) I was also happy to read that some of our criticisms of MDT, the MPO and the commission are finally being recognised:
Some critics have called for creation of a transit authority, removing the county government’s control of the transportation system.
Read here and here for more commentary on what should be done with MDT and our transit system. That should give commissioners something to talk about at their quarterly transit summits.
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I think CITT should wait 6 months, then put a hold on the spending, the entirety of money should go into a single county pot. This should then only be used for serious alternate transit projects. Bikes, buses, trolleys, trains anything that is not building roads.
Municipalities should not be in control of these funds.