Today’s N&R Ask A Reporter column addresses a question I’ve often asked myself: Are taxpayers being taken for a ride with so many empty PART buses riding up and down the highway?
Although the N&R says it’s not that simple, it seems pretty simple to me, at least the way PART director director Brent McKinney explained it:
On the financial end, McKinney said PART receives no money directly from any city or county government. It took in $2.8 million last year from a special tax on rental cars in its 10-county domain. Federal and state governments provide an additional $1.7 million, and PART earns $770,000 per year from the fare box, for a total of $5.2 million in revenues last year.
McKinney said PART’s operating costs were $4.1 million last year. The system’s surplus revenue is put back into the transit system.
….Bottom line? McKinney said regional transit is a public service no different than drinking water. People rightfully expect it to be there when they need it, no matter how many others might need it at the same time.
A buddy of mine and I had an interesting conversation after coming across a PART bus with tinted windows. You know what I said — they don’t want us to notice that nobody’s on the bus. My buddy — a some-time public transportation user himself —- countered that a lot of light shines in the windows. Fair enough, but I surprised when he then mentioned the ‘stigma’ of using public transportation — riders didn’t necessarily want to be seen riding the bus.
Then I reminded him that when you ride a PART bus, you’re reducing congestion,, you’re reducing our dependence on foreign oil, you’re making cleaner air, you’re helping helping save the world. Anyone would want to be seen doing that doing that, right?
