EDITORIAL: Legislative Solution to Transit Troubles
By Lancaster New Era, Pa.
May 1–Red Rose Transit Authority officials have scheduled a public meeting for Wednesday, the first in a series of five such meetings to gauge the public’s reaction to proposed service cutbacks and a fare hike.
But they probably can already guess the public isn’t particularly thrilled with the proposed changes.
The transit authority is considering eliminating six routes — Elizabethtown, Willow Street, Lititz, Elm Avenue/Parkside, Grandview/Rossmere and White House — and the downtown Red Rose Trolley.
The cancellation would affect as many as 2,000 riders of the six routes or up to 400,000 trips each year. In addition, the loss of the faux trolley would be a blow to local patrons, as well as to tourism.
Coupled with a 10-cent across-the-board fare hike, the service cutbacks are needed, RRTA officials say, to close a million-dollar hole in the authority’s annual operating budget.
“If nothing changes, this is what we’ll have to do,” says RRTA executive director David Kilmer.
The fare increase would occur in July, while the service cutbacks would come in January.
Wednesday’s meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Warwick Township building. Future meetings will be held in West Lampeter Township, Lancaster, Mount Joy and Leacock Township.
The meetings should attract a fair number of public-transit advocates and transit riders, who doubtless will express their displeasure with the pending cutbacks.
However, their anger ought to be directed not at RRTA officials but at the Congress, which could provide a legislative remedy but has yet to do so.
RRTA’s latest financial crisis is blamed largely on rules that prohibit transit authorities from using federal funds for operating expenses.
RRTA expects to get about the same amount of money from the federal government, but it can only be used for capital projects, like new-bus purchases.
“I can buy buses, but I can’t operate them. It’s tied to arbitrary rules about population that date back to the 1960s,” explains Kilmer.
Lancaster County isn’t alone in this regard. Transit systems in Harrisburg, Reading, Allentown, Lebanon and elsewhere are facing a similar challenge. Lebanon County has already announced a fare hike.
An effort to give transit authorities more flexibility in spending federal dollars is being spearheaded in Congress by U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts, whose district includes Lancaster County. U.S. Sens. Arlen Specter and Bob Casey are on board with the idea, as well.
The measure makes eminent sense, but for some reason is stalled in both the House and Senate.
The proposed service cutbacks and fare hike would deal a severe blow to local transit. Lives would be disrupted and, even, livelihoods threatened for those who depend on RRTA to freely move about the county.
Adds Tom Baldrige, president of the local Chamber, “Whether or not you use mass transit, the fact is that transit ridership expands the local economy, helps unclog highways and roads, and is a vital means for employees to get to work.”
The truly sad thing in this case is that this doesn’t have to happen. The federal money’s there. It just can’t be used as RRTA and other transit systems would like to use it.
That must change.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Lancaster New Era, Pa.
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