That is CATS’ official new fiscal plan? Get in line.
To recap, half-cent revenue is coming in flat. Across the first three quarters of the year CATS has raked in $54m. instead of the expected $57m. Setting aside the fact that some of us predicted this contraction would happen sooner or later, you’d think that CATS’ record high ridership it cannot stop talking about would cover this shortfall. And you’d be wrong.
You see, CATS has shifted so far away from using fares to cover operating expenses that even a 40 percent jump in ridership does not raise an additional $3m. CATS simply wants to give away as much service as possible and ask taxpayers — not riders — to make up the difference.
CATS could charge for parking, could stop accepting bus transfers for McCrory line rides, could hike crammed commuter bus fares to better reflect market realities. But no, CATS instead will play the bailout-stimulus game. Let’s look at its chances among the big urban transit systems.
Chicago will obviously have first dibs on a transit bailout, with DC close behind. Then we have listing systems in San Fran, San Jose, and huge plans still for LA. CLT has no where near the institutional or political heft of those systems. Then there is the practical reality that those systems are already asking riders to shoulder much greater loads in terms of the operational expenses. The feds — even Obama’s agents of glorious change — will not want to underwrite systems which do not pull their own weight.
Look at the Metro in DC. Outlying parking lots around the rail system certainly are not free — they are $4.75 a day, $55 a month if you want a reserved space. And starting in January, Metro will no longer give free train rides with a bus transfer, meaning everyone who rides the train has pay some fare. CATS gives away McCrory line rides with every bus fare. In fact, given that 60 percent of all rides are via transfers and passes, it is likely that thousands of South Blvd. train rides each day are via bus transfers. CATS could plug its revenue hole tomorrow if it ended that practice.
And that is just operating revenue. Even though CATS continues to spend millions planning for future train lines, there is absolutely no reason to believe that the feds will come up with most, let alone all, of the $2 billion required to build more trains. Then again, reason has nothing to do with it.
Hope! Change!
Bonus Observation: Don’t forget CATS hiked all fares in October to cope with higher than expected fuel costs. Those costs are now falling like a rock, which again, should help to make CATS whole.
