RTA raises fares

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Mon, 10/12/2009 - 22:06.
RTA raises fares

Recently Roldo has hammered away at the Greater Cleveland Rapid Transit Authority for raising fares and cutting the circulator busses.   The head of the RTA indicated that they needed to save money to make their budget.  

This afternoon, on Payne, behind the Greyhound station, there was a constant queue of about 8 or 10 busses idling - while - I assume - they waited for their schedule to role around on the clock. 

You can see there are the so called "Health Line" million dollar busses waiting, as well as the conventional Diesel busses.   Lots of idle money in rolling stock and man hours here.

This is a huge waste of money. The lower image (bus fronts) was taken Monday, October 12, 2009 at about 4:30PM.  The upper image (bus rears) is from about 5pm on October 14, 2009.   I was in the area for a half and hour each visit and there were lots of busses hanging out the entire time.

Jerry Masek (RTA PR rep) , what is going on here?

busses on Payne 10.14.09 about 5pm image jeff buster

rta buses wait in cleveland on payne image jeff buster 10.12.09

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Bus tracking cell phone app in Columbus, Ohio

Submitted by Jeff Buster on Wed, 10/14/2009 - 17:23.

Here is a link to a news article about a tracking application which could reduce the type of bus-standby time seen in the image above. 

The articulating "healthy line" busses cost the RTA about a million a pop.   They are New Flyer busses. This image was taken about 4:30 pm on Columbus day.  I watched the bus activity here on Payne for about a half an hour, and 6 to 10 busses idling was the norm.   There are 6 conventional two axle busses and 2 million dollar three axle busses, idling, with drivers, in the image. 

Have you ever seen Greyhound, Fedex, or UPS have their equipment sit and wait like this?

Jerry Masek, please inform the NEO ratepayers about why this make sense.

best, jeffb

Jerry Masek

Submitted by lmcshane on Wed, 10/14/2009 - 17:41.

 Media Relations Manager Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority 216-566-5211 216-566-5240, fax 216-728-4310, pager http://little.nhlink.net/~rta jmasek [at] gcrta [dot] org
 

Jerry Masek is a member of REALNEO, JB :)  http://realneo.us/users/jmasek 

And I have to say this...he is a really nice media guy. 
He returns phone calls and emails.  He is cordial and he does his job well.  He does not handle RTA operations.  
Since I have buttered him up here, perhaps he will pass on your comments and the contact information for the folks
who handle operations.