Why do RTA trains have to slow down so much on their way to/from downtown over those bridges?

 

You are talking about 3 East Side bridges on the common track for Blue/Green lines. The bridges ARE safe; the lower speed limit is to ensure even greater safety. Once the bridges are upgraded this summer, normal speed limits will be in place. A resolution goes to the Board on March 23 to award the bid to upgrade the bridges; I will have more details then.

Thanks for the update Jerry. Glad to hear the bridge upgrades are imminent.

Why do RTA trains have to slow down so much on their way to/from downtown over those bridges?

 

You are talking about 3 East Side bridges on the common track for Blue/Green lines. The bridges ARE safe; the lower speed limit is to ensure even greater safety. Once the bridges are upgraded this summer, normal speed limits will be in place. A resolution goes to the Board on March 23 to award the bid to upgrade the bridges; I will have more details then.

 

Excellent!

The bridges ARE safe

 

327,

 

Print that out in case you need it at the trial! :P

My concern was the seeming lack of interest in fixing this.  Now that I know it's being addressed... I'm satisfied as to the bridge issue.  If I were to hear some sort of acknowledgement that BRT isn't right for Cleveland, I'd probably be satisfied on that one too.  At the core I'm a very simple man.

BRT isn't a replacement for rail, and the Health Line is not BRT (it is BT, certainly, but the "R" part is missing).  Having said this, there are places where BRT may be useful and even appropriate.  Both Clifton Blvd. and the median of I-90 West have the potential for true, cost-effective BRT service, and several other freeways could be reconfigured to allow BRT in medians or on marginal/frontage roads.  So I would not want to rule out the concept completely.  We may need it sooner than most people realize.

BRT isn't a replacement for rail, and the Health Line is not BRT (it is BT, certainly, but the "R" part is missing).

 

The HealthLine is considered BRT by the FTA and transit systems around the world, who have sent reps to Cleverland to view our success. To make your statement accurate, you need to add 3 words at the beginning of the sentence..."in my opinion."

The HealthLine is considered BRT by the FTA and transit systems around the world, who have sent reps to Cleverland to view our success. To make your statement accurate, you need to add 3 words at the beginning of the sentence..."in my opinion."

 

I appreciate all you do on this forum and otherwise, Jerry, but in order for most people (even those serious about public transit) to consider our implementation of BRT to be "Rapid", the timing of the lights needs to at least resemble something that somebody put some thought into.  Or at the very least, make the lights turn red and green randomly.  That would have to be more efficient than the current timings.

Jerry, do you know when google maps/google transit will be updated with the April 4 service changes?

 

Also, could you ask the route planners why they chose to redirect certain rush hour HealthLine runs to the University Rapid station instead of having the 7 and 32 routes connect with Euclid to intersect with the current HealthLine route?

 

Finally, does RTA have any recent estimates (official or unofficial) or average weekday ridership on the Health Line?

 

I know your route planners are busy right now, so I of course understand if you can't get answers to these questions, but I'd this inquiring mind wants to know.  Good luck to you and RTA with the route changes. Thanks! 

Well, color me pleasantly surprised to be updating my post with information indicating that the "ugly" on my commute home today belonged solely to the RIDERS, and not RTA.

 

I had hoped to leave quite early and avoid some of the crowds, but alas, only about 10 minutes earlier than usual.  I couldn't believe how packed downtown still was (I admit, it was nice to see all the bodies, I wish it looked like that every day).  When I got to the top of the stairs inside Tower City and looked down to the rapid level, I said out loud, "Oh NO!"  As I mentioned in my previous post, I was on a bit of a time crunch today, which is one of the worst days to be in a time crunch, but it was unavoidable.  Well, the whole outer area around the bottom of the stairs/info desk was PACKED with people, shoulder to shoulder, waiting to get through the turnstiles.  I was like OMG I am NEVER going to get home.  As I got closer to the bottom though, I think I figured out what RTA was doing, which was - wait for it - REALLY SMART.  They appeared to have locked down all the incoming turnstiles and were waiting until about 5 minutes before the next train arrived to let people through, which they did, en masse, by unlocking all the turnstiles at once and having an RTA person posted at the end of each turnstile lane holding a ticket in the air to indicate to the public that they should show their ticket as they walked through as proof of payment. The drunks seemed to immediately understand this, and everyone held up their tickets and paraded through the lines quickly.  I took my place towards where the door opens for the front/first car of the train and people quickly filled in around/behind me.  There were SEVERAL RTA personnel and transit police doing the following:  herding loose sheep away from the yellow area, herding drunk sheep back into where the train actually arrives instead of past that point where they would be unsupervised and topple into the path of the train, making sure people gave way for those exiting the train, making sure people got on in a somewhat orderly fashion and generally watching out for everyone.  I was seriously impressed.  I got a seat immediately, which is a lot more than I can say for last St. Patty's day when I was hugely pregnant, and the train quickly filled up with people drinking from flasks, falling down (literally), smoking pot (literally) and blowing bubbles, along with all the yelling, singing, fighting and other typical St. Patty's stuff.  It certainly was a different ride home.

 

I have to say, I was pretty impressed with RTA coming and going today.  Good job.

I also must say that RTA did a good job from what I saw today.  I wish downtown was also this crowded, minus the drunkenness!  :lol:

Agreed, RTA seemed prepared for the mess that happened yesterday. Good job.

Jerry, do you know when google maps/google transit will be updated with the April 4 service changes?

 

Also, could you ask the route planners why they chose to redirect certain rush hour HealthLine runs to the University Rapid station instead of having the 7 and 32 routes connect with Euclid to intersect with the current HealthLine route?

 

Finally, does RTA have any recent estimates (official or unofficial) or average weekday ridership on the Health Line?

 

I know your route planners are busy right now, so I of course understand if you can't get answers to these questions, but I'd this inquiring mind wants to know.  Good luck to you and RTA with the route changes. Thanks! 

 

I can address your first two questions, since I'm directly responsible for the first item, and was asking the very same question about the HealthLine vs. the 7 & 32.

 

Google Transit files were prepared yesterday, and Google does their processing on a weekly basis, on Thursdays, with the update appearing online the following Friday, 8 days later (this is Google's processing schedule for ALL transit systems, not just ours). This means that information for April 4 and beyond will be available on Google as of Friday, March 26.

 

As far as the rerouting of the HealthLine vs. the #7 and #32, it was a question of efficiency and availability of connection/layover space. The HealthLine extension down to University-Cedar was simply the more efficient solution. Both options were considered.

 

I'll leave the ridership numbers to Jerry.

^ Ridership numbers are compiled each month. The February ridership numbers will be released at the March 23 Board meeting. The HealthLine ridership is a separate line item and I will be happy to supply it. If I do not post it immediately, feel free to send me an e-mail and remind me. It will be a busy day.

OK, I will preface this with "in my opinion."  I realize that others' definition of "rapid" and of "success" may be radically different and perhaps even opposite of my own.  And I do appreciate that even modest improvements to service on Euclid were better than none at all.  And I will overlook that tens of millions of dollars were spent to gain these modest improvements, with no prospect of a return on that investment in our or anyone else's lifetime.

 

But 35 scheduled minutes (and often 45 actual minutes, or more), to serve barely 7 miles??  The scheduled time is 12 miles per hour.  A good runner can run faster than this.

 

Compare this to the 51, which covers over 21 miles in just over an hour, without the benefit of timed lights, freeways, or offboard fare collection.  Or even the 3 bus, whose longest scheduled time is 42 minutes, to start and end at roughly the same destination, in spite of significant congestion at both ends, stopping at every other block, and having no advantages over, and no pretense at being other than, a local bus.  I won't mention that the 55, 77, 39, and all of the Park & Rides also manage far better average speeds, since these do benefit from using freeways for some or all of the trip and that is not possible for the Euclid Corridor.

 

But the following could be done, and would help a lot.

 

• Separate the service into local and express services.  The express service should have far fewer stops - no more than 2 per mile outside of downtown and U/C.  It need not run as frequently as now but it should be very predictable and reliable.  The local service can make more frequent stops.
  
• Fix the lights.  Express buses outside downtown should NEVER have to stop at one.
   
  

 

 

^I propose we move suggestions to reform HealthLine operations to http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,2840.2970.html

 

Thanks, Jet and Jerry for the info!  Jerry, if you have the average weekday HealthLine ridership for January handy, I'd be curious to know that too.

The term "rapid" has a generally accepted meaning, both in general and in a transit context.  Neither meaning applies to the Euclid Corridor system.  Not even close.  This is readily observable.  I'm deeply concerned that there is cognitive dissonance taking place at RTA with regard to BRT and the success of the Euclid Corridor project.  Words have meanings, and so do promises.  This signal timing system is a scandal... and RTA's response "no it isn't, everything's fine" will not do. 

 

Everything's not fine.  The system doesn't work, and given the urban planning taking place along Euclid, and the true intent of the BRT system there, we wasted millions on all those stations.  That's not OK.  That's a serious screwup we need to avoid repeating.  But first we need to look facts in the face... the Euclid BRT doesn't work as advertised, and even if it did, it wasn't an appropriate planning choice to begin with. 

^ January 2010 consisted of 19 work weekdays, two weekday holidays, and 10 weekend dates. January ridership on the HealthLine was 317,400, up from 297,200 in January 2009, an increase of 6.8 percent. This is an apples-to-apples comparison, because the HealthLine opened in October 2008.

^Thanks!  Is average weekday ridership also broken out?  If not, do you know if there is a rule of thumb to estimate it from the monthly total?

 

In any case, average daily ridership is over 10,000...which is higher than the green/blue line.  Wow.

 

One last question- is this ridership reported to APTA as part of bus ridership?

^ We report ridership to APTA the same way I report it here...big bus+BRT = total bus. I do not know of the method used to calculate average weekday ridership. I do have a rough formula for you, at least for RTA....80 percent take the bus, 10 percent take heavy rail and 5 percent ride light rail.

^ January 2010 consisted of 19 work weekdays, two weekday holidays, and 10 weekend dates. January ridership on the HealthLine was 317,400, up from 297,200 in January 2009, an increase of 6.8 percent. This is an apples-to-apples comparison, because the HealthLine opened in October 2008.

What was the ridership on the #6 in Jan of '04? That would be an apples to apples comparison I'd like to see since construction started that spring.

Re: light timing and signal extension on Euclid.  As I understand it; the ball is in the City of Cleveland's court.  Precisely,  the Division of Traffic Engineering within the Department of Public Service.  I have learned of this situation through serving on the STAT2019 committee that resulted from the City's Sustainability Summit in August 2009.

http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/CityofCleveland/Home/Government/CityAgencies/PublicService/Public%20Service%20Sections

Re: light timing and signal extension on Euclid.  As I understand it; the ball is in the City of Cleveland's court.  Precisely,  the Division of Traffic Engineering within the Department of Public Service.  I have learned of this situation through serving on the STAT2019 committee that resulted from the City's Sustainability Summit in August 2009.

http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/CityofCleveland/Home/Government/CityAgencies/PublicService/Public%20Service%20Sections

 

Thanks for the info.  The system has been up and running a while now... exactly when did the ball enter this court?  How was this issue overlooked back when all the old lights were torn out and replaced with these new ones?  That should have been the end of it.  This makes it sound like the Euclid Corridor system we were promised hasn't even been installed yet, or hasn't been turned on, or some such.  The official rollout was in 2008 wasn't it?

Re: light timing and signal extension on Euclid.  As I understand it; the ball is in the City of Cleveland's court.  Precisely,  the Division of Traffic Engineering within the Department of Public Service.  I have learned of this situation through serving on the STAT2019 committee that resulted from the City's Sustainability Summit in August 2009.

http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/CityofCleveland/Home/Government/CityAgencies/PublicService/Public%20Service%20Sections

 

Exactly. And the city hasn't responded to RTA pressure. So perhaps they might respond to public pressure....

 

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Mail: Letters to the Editor, The Plain Dealer, 1801 Superior Ave., Cleveland, OH 44114.

Fax: 216-999-6209

E-mail: http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/letter-to-editor/

 

Tips: Keep your letters to fewer than 200 words. Some papers allow up to 350 words; others to less than 100. All the sample letters below are 200 words or less. Sign your printed/faxed letter, or use a script font to sign your e-mailed letter (do not attach it, copy and paste it into your e-mail!). Be sure to include your address, city, zip and a daytime phone number as the newspaper will want to confirm you wrote/sent the letter.

What exactly are we asking them to do?  What exactly are they doing now that's preventing full function?  And... why is this conflict just now coming to light?  Why has this situation been so inscrutable for two years now?  At this point I think the community deserves to have the entire truth spelled out.  Immediately.  We were told this thing would zip through lights, it was a core selling point, and apparently that's been administratively impossible this whole time.  We don't even know if it'll ever be possible.  WTF happened?  WTF is going on here? 

What exactly are we asking them to do?  What exactly are they doing now that's preventing full function?  And... why is this conflict just now coming to light?  Why has this situation been so inscrutable for two years now?  At this point I think the community deserves to have the entire truth spelled out.  Immediately.  We were told this thing would zip through lights, it was a core selling point, and apparently that's been administratively impossible this whole time.  We don't even know if it'll ever be possible.  WTF happened?  WTF is going on here? 

 

Exactly.  Unfortunately we wont likely get any answers to that, just maybe some finger pointing.  Disconnect anyone?

Yes, a definite disconnect.  IMO, we need to demand the city work with RTA on this one; especially if the ECTP is the benchmark for future BRT projects in greater Cleveland.  I will keep folks updated on future tactics.

 

Interestingly, the importance of RTA seems lost on the Downtown Cleveland Alliance as there is no RTA representation on their Board of Directors.

http://www.downtownclevelandalliance.com/page/DCA-Board-of-Directors.aspx?parent=6

 

Contrast that to Capital Crossroads (the Columbus equivalent to the DCA)

http://www.downtowncolumbus.com/about/capital-crossroads-sid

OK, I will preface this with "in my opinion."  I realize that others' definition of "rapid" and of "success" may be radically different and perhaps even opposite of my own.  And I do appreciate that even modest improvements to service on Euclid were better than none at all.  And I will overlook that tens of millions of dollars were spent to gain these modest improvements, with no prospect of a return on that investment in our or anyone else's lifetime.

 

But 35 scheduled minutes (and often 45 actual minutes, or more), to serve barely 7 miles??  The scheduled time is 12 miles per hour.  A good runner can run faster than this.

 

Compare this to the 51, which covers over 21 miles in just over an hour, without the benefit of timed lights, freeways, or offboard fare collection.  Or even the 3 bus, whose longest scheduled time is 42 minutes, to start and end at roughly the same destination, in spite of significant congestion at both ends, stopping at every other block, and having no advantages over, and no pretense at being other than, a local bus.  I won't mention that the 55, 77, 39, and all of the Park & Rides also manage far better average speeds, since these do benefit from using freeways for some or all of the trip and that is not possible for the Euclid Corridor.

 

But the following could be done, and would help a lot.

 

• Separate the service into local and express services.  The express service should have far fewer stops - no more than 2 per mile outside of downtown and U/C.  It need not run as frequently as now but it should be very predictable and reliable.  The local service can make more frequent stops.
  
• Fix the lights.  Express buses outside downtown should NEVER have to stop at one.
   
  

 

 

 

Bottom line is, as some have said all along, we were sold a bill of goods with ECP/BRT.  And as Grumpy said, let's compare the Health Line with the No. 6 in 2004 before Euclid was torn up for BRT, not those rosey RTA "huge jump" figures RTA is feeding us from the #6 during the height of construction.

I think it is safe to say that ridership is higher on the Healthline than the #6 had in 2004, but I'd like to see how much. If we're seeing a 20% increase in ridership while ridership RTA wide was up 15% (I'm completely making those numbers up by the way) than that makes one wonder if the $200 million was spent wisely.

 

^ January 2010 consisted of 19 work weekdays, two weekday holidays, and 10 weekend dates. January ridership on the HealthLine was 317,400, up from 297,200 in January 2009, an increase of 6.8 percent. This is an apples-to-apples comparison, because the HealthLine opened in October 2008.

Jerry, a statement was made that the Healthline is not what was advertised and your response was to state that people are still riding it in better than expected numbers. This is good news, but has nothing to do with the statement made. Whether you intended to or not I'm calling you on a red herring.

^FYI, if you look back upthread, you'll see that Jerry's info about Jan ridership was in response to my request for Jan ridership, not a response to any of the complaints about the HL.

I think it is safe to say that ridership is higher on the Healthline than the #6 had in 2004, but I'd like to see how much. If we're seeing a 20% increase in ridership while ridership RTA wide was up 15% (I'm completely making those numbers up by the way) than that makes one wonder if the $200 million was spent wisely.

 

I think part of the increase is the "new toy" factor of the HL.  It "looks" cool and the stations... well, different.  Hell, I rode the thing up to CSU just to see what the fuss was about.  It's different and slightly faster, ... but not worth the cost and certainly, in no way, comes within an ocean as being as effective as the original planned subway in that corridor.  And no where near as fast -- the subway gets you to U. Circle in about 10-12 mins.

 

I would also say an increase is the growth in that corridor, at both the Clinic and CSU ... especially CSU... And I wouldn't at all say that growth was/is tied to the Health Line.  These trip generators were growing already.

Complaints have already been brought up about the announcer guy on the rapid, but it's now getting so annoying it's starting to make me feel like my ears are bleeding.  Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, now they have a woman who makes nearly constant, incredibly loud announcements the entire time you are waiting on the platform at Tower City.

 

Why does RTA think we need to be constantly bombarded with noise?  You literally cannot carry on any kind of cell phone conversation on the rapid anymore (I was always quiet on my phone, I swear!) because the noise from the overhead announcer interrupts the conversation and you have a continually broken connection where the person on the other end breaks up while talking because the overhead guy is talking at the same time. And you have to plug your ear with your free hand to hear what's being said since the guy is CONSTANTLY talking.  That cutesy announcement about how we all don't need to know what you're having for dinner has gotten me to the point of some deranged Stephen King character.  I feel like my face is melting off and I'm going to start spouting off in a guttural language and waving a giant cross back and forth at everyone screaming "MOVE" like Ben at the end of the Graduate.  I have heard more than one person say they are probably going to stop taking the rapid because of the constant noise bombardment, and now that fairer weather is (almost) here, I think I'm going to join them, at least for awhile, because I can't take it anymore.  The WAH-WAH-WAH of the pleasant lady's voice CONSTANTLY talking at Tower City is just the last straw.  You really don't need to thank everyone for choosing RTA every single time someone speaks.  They do not do this on any other transit system I've ridden in any other city.  They simply announce the next stop. A lot of times, this is done via an electronic sign and nothing else, so you can ride in quiet, or at least quietly talk to your neighbor or on the phone.  Forget reading.  You cannot concentrate on a story that you have to keep starting over and over as you are interrupted again and again by these lengthy and pointless announcements about the long list of bus connections at the next route, or what "points of interest" are coming up, like the Cudell Recretation Center (really? This is an attraction we have to mention?)  I cannot even hear my iPod over these people's voices unless it's turned up to a dangerous volume. 

 

I don't think I should have to wear earplugs in order to ride public transit without being driven insane by the constant noise bombardment from announcements.  What can we do to make the madness stop?  It is COMPELTELY over the top.

Why does RTA think we need to be constantly bombarded with noise?

 

Cue EC... :)

I'll come at this from the perspective of a first time rider.  I ride RTA buses fairly often and have taken the blue line on a few occasions, but two weeks ago I rode the red line for the first time to get to the airport.  As a first time rider, even I was annoyed with the constant announcements.  Just tell us the next stop and let it go!  And the bus connections probably aren't necessary.  I don't think people are spontaneously getting off at a station because they heard they could connect to a certain bus route there.

 

I didn't notice anything in TC except for the soft music, which I find appropriate and nice.  Overall, I agree with R&R.  Keep announcements to a minimum and let people ride in peace and quiet.  If people want information on connecting routes or local attractions there are plenty of other ways to attain that information... quietly.

^They just started the Nice But Very Loud Lady a couple of weeks ago.  Insult, meet injury.  It's so loud you can't really understand most of what she's saying anyway, it's like someone coming around with a bullhorn and standing right in front of your ear making an announcement.

^ Agree with the announcement on the trains, mostly unnecessary.  Keeep the info to where we are and where we are going and that would be great, thanks.  Also, there needs to be some work done on the speaker systems for the announcements on the train.  Sometimes it is at an appropriate volume, loud enough to hear soft enough to generally ignore.  Other times its painfully loud.  Fixing that could let guy fade to the background.

 

The lady in the station though, I think is helpful.  Specifically announcing the delays that occur on the train bound for the airport.  Also if you are not a daily rider then you may not know that the Airport train will leave beofre the one sitting in the center track bound for Brookpark.  Could the volume be lower, sure; is it a bad service, I can't see how more information for your riders is a bad thing.

But it's way, way too wordy and then the message gets lost and people tune out.  I maintain I've never been anywhere else that does this.  Signs seem plenty sufficient for this purpose; the electronic sign at TC could be bigger and more prominent and take care of this type of thing easily. 

 

Maybe if the announcements were shorter, quieter and more to the point, maybe it would be useful.  But she still makes the same announcements over and over. There is literally not 2 minutes that go by without overhead announcements/talking.

 

Everyone knows how I feel about RTA and its seemingly incessant "noises."  Is there a person at RTA who actually approves these annoucements and thinks they're good?  I would love to hear some kind of justification for these new kinds of things.  Yes, we've heard justification about the talking about buses and how they're going to save countless numbers of pedestrians, but what about these new announcements at Tower City and the Red Line?  It's almost embarrassingly bad for RTA!

Yes, I heard the talking bus as it was SITTING PERFECTLY STILL, parked on that little street next to the library.  "PEDESTRIAN! LOOK BOTH WAYS! BUS IS TURNING! BUS IS TURNING!"  Except it wasn't turning.  It wasn't doing anything but embarrassing me for being an RTA rider.

Why must RTA make everything soooo difficult... Other cities I know of: New York, Philly, Chicago, among them just changed over to an automated voice system.  One week, human voices, then next, automated.  And these are much bigger, busier and complex systems than RTA.  There wasn't this prolonged, experimental period with obviously God awful announcements like RTA.  And these other cities don't have the most beautiful voices in the world, but their not offensive either.  And they simply announce the stops and announce "doors closing" and that's it.  In some cases they announce major buildings/institutions and major connecting lines, like Amtrak.  But they are quick, clear and straight to the point.  No ridiculous, absurd, annoying  conversational spiel, like on the  Red Line.  No mechanical, 50s-style Robie the Robot type jarring announcement like on the Blue and Green lines. 

 

I swear, sometimes I really have to wonder whether RTA officials have any clue about running a major transit system.  They really seem like they are from Podunk.

Yes, I heard the talking bus as it was SITTING PERFECTLY STILL, parked on that little street next to the library. "PEDESTRIAN! LOOK BOTH WAYS! BUS IS TURNING! BUS IS TURNING!" Except it wasn't turning. It wasn't doing anything but embarrassing me for being an RTA rider.

 

Maybe they should have an automated voice warning pedestrians: "Alert! RTA bus driver distracted by cell phone again!"

 

Instead, these horn-honking, siren-shrieking, tiresomely-talking buses are what happens when the union manages the employer.

Maybe they should have an automated voice warning pedestrians: "Alert! RTA bus driver distracted by cell phone again!"

 

LOL!

I would LOVE to hear from the person at RTA who not only introduced but APPROVED these ridiculous stop/turning/delay announcements on the buses, the trains and now the Tower City station.  What possible reason could there be to institute these things and make them so irritating to riders (and presumably the drivers who have to listen to them all day!)  Public transportation in Cleveland has taken a turn for the worse, by making the ride obnoxious!!!

Joe Calabrese was on Feagler and Friends last night.  Of the top of my head, he talked about how 98 percent of all RTA users will still have access to public transportation after the route cuts, that 70 percent of RTA funds comes from sales taxes, that the 1990s were a golden age for RTA (though they didn't realize it at the time), that the inner city and downtown neighborhood trolleys (like the one in Lakewood) were major major money losers, and he asked viewers to write to President Obama so that the RTA can get more funding.  Mr. Calabrese also discussed RTA cutting other costs with layoffs and selling buses.

 

Mr. Feagler pretty much softballed the interview. 

 

 

RTA officials question union priorities

 

CLEVELAND – Officials of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (RTA) today expressed strong disappointment over a recent union vote rejecting a proposal to save jobs.

 

“Our priority is to maintain both jobs and transit service,” says RTA CEO & General Manager Joe Calabrese. “We seriously question what the Union’s priorities are.”

 

http://www.riderta.com/nu_newsroom_releases.asp?listingid=1411

I suppose you're just going to ignore all the complaints above about the announcements?  I've been driving all this week and I tell you, it's heaven not to have to listen to the voices anymore.  Nobody at RTA cares about driving ridership away?

I can't imagine RTA could cut anymore services, nor should it.  This stubborn (some would even say WORTHLESS!) union is strangling RTA to death.  It's such a shame.  The union would rather see more slashes in services to the entire region's transit system rather than a reduction of their inflated salaries and benefits.

If I were the union, I might want the managers making substantially more than me to at least take equal cuts in pay and benefits.  But what exactly was offered to the union or what the union has offered is not public.  Presumably there are negotiations and both sides have made offers/demands.  Let's not be so quick to say that it is the unions that are "strangling RTA to death" without more information.

If I were the union, I might want the managers making substantially more than me to at least take equal cuts in pay and benefits. But what exactly was offered to the union or what the union has offered is not public. Presumably there are negotiations and both sides have made offers/demands. Let's not be so quick to say that it is the unions that are "strangling RTA to death" without more information.

The non-union workers, including management, have already taken a pay cut. RTA asked the union to just not get a raise and they said no.

Why must RTA (and hence taxpayers) deal with the union in the first place?  Why not make an "take it or leave it" offer, and if it is not accepted, hire qualified drivers from the general public instead?