Post by bennyp81 on Jun 15, 2005 11:45:20 GMT -8
Bart Reed
User ID: 1606604 Apr 19th 11:16 PM
KCBS Radio AM 740: Friday, April 18, 2003
BART considers another fare increase months after raising rates
(KCBS) -- The new BART extension to San Francisco International Airport will open on June 22nd, but at the same time, BART directors may approve another fare increase.
KCBS reporter Doug Sovern says ridership is down, and BART faces a $39 million deficit.
BART General Manager Tom Margro said the transit agency will most likely raise rates ten percent, instead of cutting service as other beleaguered transit agencies have done.
"Let's keep the service out there," he said. "But in order to do that, we have to do a fare increase, we believe."
A five percent increase went into effect three months ago. This next hike could be ten percent.
"The fare increases have been less than the rate of inflation over the last 10 or 15 years, Margro said.
One woman who rides BART from Concord to San Francisco's Embarcadero station said she feels very nickel-and-dimed by the recession.
"It's tough, but hopefully we just bite the bullet, and it will get better soon. Let's hope and pray it does," she said. "We want to do what we can to help make the economy better, but we do have a limit."
The BART-to-SFO extension is a year-and-a-half behind schedule and over-budget.
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ
Bart Reed
User ID: 1606604 Apr 22nd 12:20 AM
Contra Costa Times: Sunday, April 20, 2003
Column: Commuter Queen
Commuter: I read the other day that BART is considering another 10 percent fare hike. They are cutting their nose off to spite their face,
as an old saying goes. I could not afford the last increase in January.
The cost of BART between Bay Point and Embar-cadero was such that I quit my job in San Fran-cisco to look for something closer to home.
Too bad I never read anything about BART management saying they would cut back any perks they get in order to contribute to keeping fares from being increased. It used to be that BART was more cost effective than driving. It no longer is and I will be driving more.
Dorothy Miller, Pittsburg
Queen: You're not alone, although some people say they'll come up with the money to keep up with the daily fares. Check out the Exhaust Pipe to
see what your fellow commuters have to say.
Queen: Speaking of BART: Last week, we printed a letter from a BART train operator who stated that "whistlestops," when a BART train stops at the yard to pick up or let off train operators, are necessary to keep the trains running.
He was disputing an earlier statement from Vicki Wills at BART that the stops would be eliminated because they had been a short-term fix.
I forwarded his letter to her. She said the stops are built into the schedule to keep the trains running efficiently, but said BART administrators didn't want to comment beyond that.
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ
Bart Reed
User ID: 1606604 May 9th 10:44 PM
San Francisco Chronicle: Friday, April 25, 2003
BART to discuss 10% fare increase; Public hearing as board moves to adopt budget
By Henry K. Lee
Chronicle Staff Writer
A proposed 10 percent fare increase for BART riders will be a topic of discussion at a public hearing May 22, officials said Thursday as they grappled with the transit agency's budget.
That will allow members of the public to voice their thoughts on the matter before BART's board of directors adopts a budget by late June for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The proposed spending plan calls for a fare increase of up to 10 percent but no cuts in service, said BART spokesman Mike Healy.
"The goal is not to erode service, that is, to maintain service without any cuts in service," Healy said.
A 10 percent increase would generate an estimated $7.6 million in revenue in the proposed $460 million budget, according to BART figures released Thursday.
BART fares have fallen behind the consumer price index since 1997, when the last of three annual fare increases totaling 45 percent was levied.
That was the only fare increase until January, when fares went up 5 percent as part of a budget-balancing plan.
Several directors have said they would back a plan that calls for small, regular fare increases
-- tied to increased operating costs -- to be assessed every two or three years.
A 10 percent fare boost would push the price of a trip to downtown San Francisco from Pittsburg/Bay Point station from $4.55 to $5; from Walnut Creek from $3.60 to $3.95; from Dublin/Pleasanton from
$4.25 to $4.65; and from San Leandro from $3.10 to $3.40.
The board will also consider eliminating 126 jobs
-- although only 28 employees would face layoffs -- under the proposed budget. Most of the jobs would be lost through attrition or through trans-fer to the San Francisco International Airport extension, expected to open June 22, the second day of summer.
The public hearing will be at 9 a.m. May 22 in the
board room at BART headquarters above the Lake
Merritt BART station, 800 Madison St., Oakland, CA
94604.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ
Bart Reed
User ID: 1606604 May 9th 10:53 PM
Contra Costa Times: Friday, April 25, 2003
BART considers fee hikes, staff cuts
By Lisa Vorderbrueggen
Contra Costa Times
OAKLAND -- BART will roll next month on three fronts that could leave tracks through riders' wallets.
To balance its gaping budget, the board will decide whether to hike fares 10 percent in January, schedule 5.5 percent increases every
two years after that and levy an extra nickel per ticket for repairs.
If the nine-member board adopts every fee, a round-trip ticket from Pittsburg to downtown San Francisco will top $15 in 2012, compared to $9.10 today.
The budget also eliminates several hundred jobs. Many of these positions are vacant or will transfer to the San Francisco International Airport line, but 26 people would see pink slips.
The gloomy forecast sent the BART board Thursday into a crabby, five-hour session that devolved into heated bickering over whether to tack new parking fees onto the list.
Director Tom Radulovich of San Francisco failed to win support for his oft-revived universal parking-fee plea, but he and his colleagues face plenty of controversy.
BART labor unions asked the board to avert recom-mended lay-offs and ax vacant positions instead.
A union-hired financial consultant contends that BART has an excessive number of vacancies on the books and uses the openings to preserve invisible department budget reserves.
"BART had 160 vacancies as of March," said union budget analyst Paul Worthman. "Out of 160 openings, can't BART find 26 vacant jobs and
keep from putting 26 people on the street?"
BART typically has 100 vacancies at any given time and budgets accordingly, countered Deputy General Manager Dorothy Dugger.
The other 60 openings may involve critical functions and BART managers based cuts on duties rather than vacancy status, she said.
Staff cuts constitute nearly half the budget fix next fiscal year, which starts July 1, and most of the board members have indicated they will support reductions.
Impacts on riders also garnered considerable anguish as the board contemplated a series of increases designed to keep the agency solvent and operable next year and beyond.
BART does not blame January's 5 percent fare hike but the agency recently logged its 22nd consecu-tive month of ridership declines.
Even after the SFO line opens in June, BART expects ridership to remain below 2000 levels.
In addition, the board must worry about how to keep trains in working order. The staff has suggested a 5-cent per trip surcharge to raise cash for everything from seismic retrofits to car replacement.
Engineers estimate BART needs $2.2 billion over the next decade for system renovations and $1.6 billion to seismically strengthen the Transbay
Tube and other segments.
To add to the sense of doom, BART budget analyst Rob Umbreit outlined three huge fiscal hits coming in 2005 and later.
BART must in 2005 resume paying $8 million to $10 million into the state retirement system. Until the economic slide, the fund earned sufficient profits to cover the payments.
The state also mandated retiree medical benefit cost changes expected in 2006 and the agency's favorable federal electric power contract ends in 2007. The board will hold a public hearing on the budget May 22.
Lisa Vorderbrueggen covers transportation and
growth. Reach her:925-945-773/lvorderb@cctimes.com
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ
Bart Reed
User ID: 1606604 May 9th 11:01 PM
Oakland Tribune: Friday, April 25, 2003
BART begins looking at fare increases; Ridership keeps dropping, but directors need to balance
By Sean Holstege
Staff Writer
It took the BART Board of Directors 4-1/2 hours on Thursday just to set a public hearing next month at which it plans to balance a $38 million budget shortfall with fare increases that could reach 10 percent.
Directors wrangled, postured and cajoled as they framed the debate for May 22. They tried to set the political table with what would and would not be considered as BART enters its 22nd consecutive
month of declining ridership.
What was left on the table was a fare increase, along with a plan for regular fare adjustments linked to inflation and a surcharge on each ticket
to raise money toward the seismic strengthening of the Transbay Tube.
Even with all those increases, BART still would not be able to fully pay for the retrofit or cover its long-term capital needs.
If all fare increases are passed, BART riders would pay $3.20 for a one-way ticket from Berkeley to Embarcadero, $3.15 from Dublin/
Pleasanton to Coliseum and $3.55 from Fremont to 12th Street Oakland.
What got nowhere was an effort to change the parking rules to require all BART riders to pay for parking, even though directors consider the current system of reserved parking to be a failed
experiment.
Not discussed was what they did last year -- service cuts, even as ridership fell from 333,000 two years ago to 296,000.
"Even with the proposed budget cuts, service levels will be maintained and the customer experience should remain steady," said Paul Overseier, BART's operations chief.
BART will be "unlike every other transit system in the Bay Area which faces the awful combination of raising fares and cutting service."
To balance its $461 million operating budget, BART
is proposing to cut 126 positions and lay off 26 workers, even after fare increases.
BART's unions told the elected board on Thursday that no layoffs were needed. Using BART's own numbers, a union economist found that the transit district had 139 more vacancies than had been accounted for and 14 positions had been kept open since the 1990s. Union reps cried foul.
"I represent employees at 35 public agencies, and all of them are dealing with severe budget cuts.
All of them say that before they lay anybody off, they'll eliminate vacant positions," said Larry
Hendel, East Bay director for Service Employees International Union Local 790.
"But you have a different policy -- and it is a policy. It's a hidden way to save money."
BART General Manager Tom Margro later acknowledged
in an interview that extra vacancies are kept on the books.
Key positions
He said what matters is not the number, but which key positions are filled and, without the cushion,
more employees would be getting laid off.
If not for the opening of a new extension to San Francisco International Airport, the budget could have been even more painful.
June 22 opening
The June 22 opening of the extension allows BART to add 283 SFO-line jobs and to retain 79 of its own workers.
The Peninsula service will run with three extra trains, with no change in the current schedule, Overseier said. BART can afford it because of cost-sharing agreements with San Mateo County.
Service cuts or retention are in the eye of the beholder. Essentially, BART will run the core system and the SFO extension with roughly the same number of people.
And as BART wraps up an overhaul of its rail fleet, elevators, escalators, ticket machines and turnstiles, it needs to spend less money maintaining what had always been finicky machinery. That translates to less overtime and fewer mechanics.
Contact Sean Holstege: sholstege@angnewspapers.com
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ
User ID: 1606604 Apr 19th 11:16 PM
KCBS Radio AM 740: Friday, April 18, 2003
BART considers another fare increase months after raising rates
(KCBS) -- The new BART extension to San Francisco International Airport will open on June 22nd, but at the same time, BART directors may approve another fare increase.
KCBS reporter Doug Sovern says ridership is down, and BART faces a $39 million deficit.
BART General Manager Tom Margro said the transit agency will most likely raise rates ten percent, instead of cutting service as other beleaguered transit agencies have done.
"Let's keep the service out there," he said. "But in order to do that, we have to do a fare increase, we believe."
A five percent increase went into effect three months ago. This next hike could be ten percent.
"The fare increases have been less than the rate of inflation over the last 10 or 15 years, Margro said.
One woman who rides BART from Concord to San Francisco's Embarcadero station said she feels very nickel-and-dimed by the recession.
"It's tough, but hopefully we just bite the bullet, and it will get better soon. Let's hope and pray it does," she said. "We want to do what we can to help make the economy better, but we do have a limit."
The BART-to-SFO extension is a year-and-a-half behind schedule and over-budget.
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ
Bart Reed
User ID: 1606604 Apr 22nd 12:20 AM
Contra Costa Times: Sunday, April 20, 2003
Column: Commuter Queen
Commuter: I read the other day that BART is considering another 10 percent fare hike. They are cutting their nose off to spite their face,
as an old saying goes. I could not afford the last increase in January.
The cost of BART between Bay Point and Embar-cadero was such that I quit my job in San Fran-cisco to look for something closer to home.
Too bad I never read anything about BART management saying they would cut back any perks they get in order to contribute to keeping fares from being increased. It used to be that BART was more cost effective than driving. It no longer is and I will be driving more.
Dorothy Miller, Pittsburg
Queen: You're not alone, although some people say they'll come up with the money to keep up with the daily fares. Check out the Exhaust Pipe to
see what your fellow commuters have to say.
Queen: Speaking of BART: Last week, we printed a letter from a BART train operator who stated that "whistlestops," when a BART train stops at the yard to pick up or let off train operators, are necessary to keep the trains running.
He was disputing an earlier statement from Vicki Wills at BART that the stops would be eliminated because they had been a short-term fix.
I forwarded his letter to her. She said the stops are built into the schedule to keep the trains running efficiently, but said BART administrators didn't want to comment beyond that.
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ
Bart Reed
User ID: 1606604 May 9th 10:44 PM
San Francisco Chronicle: Friday, April 25, 2003
BART to discuss 10% fare increase; Public hearing as board moves to adopt budget
By Henry K. Lee
Chronicle Staff Writer
A proposed 10 percent fare increase for BART riders will be a topic of discussion at a public hearing May 22, officials said Thursday as they grappled with the transit agency's budget.
That will allow members of the public to voice their thoughts on the matter before BART's board of directors adopts a budget by late June for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The proposed spending plan calls for a fare increase of up to 10 percent but no cuts in service, said BART spokesman Mike Healy.
"The goal is not to erode service, that is, to maintain service without any cuts in service," Healy said.
A 10 percent increase would generate an estimated $7.6 million in revenue in the proposed $460 million budget, according to BART figures released Thursday.
BART fares have fallen behind the consumer price index since 1997, when the last of three annual fare increases totaling 45 percent was levied.
That was the only fare increase until January, when fares went up 5 percent as part of a budget-balancing plan.
Several directors have said they would back a plan that calls for small, regular fare increases
-- tied to increased operating costs -- to be assessed every two or three years.
A 10 percent fare boost would push the price of a trip to downtown San Francisco from Pittsburg/Bay Point station from $4.55 to $5; from Walnut Creek from $3.60 to $3.95; from Dublin/Pleasanton from
$4.25 to $4.65; and from San Leandro from $3.10 to $3.40.
The board will also consider eliminating 126 jobs
-- although only 28 employees would face layoffs -- under the proposed budget. Most of the jobs would be lost through attrition or through trans-fer to the San Francisco International Airport extension, expected to open June 22, the second day of summer.
The public hearing will be at 9 a.m. May 22 in the
board room at BART headquarters above the Lake
Merritt BART station, 800 Madison St., Oakland, CA
94604.
E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ
Bart Reed
User ID: 1606604 May 9th 10:53 PM
Contra Costa Times: Friday, April 25, 2003
BART considers fee hikes, staff cuts
By Lisa Vorderbrueggen
Contra Costa Times
OAKLAND -- BART will roll next month on three fronts that could leave tracks through riders' wallets.
To balance its gaping budget, the board will decide whether to hike fares 10 percent in January, schedule 5.5 percent increases every
two years after that and levy an extra nickel per ticket for repairs.
If the nine-member board adopts every fee, a round-trip ticket from Pittsburg to downtown San Francisco will top $15 in 2012, compared to $9.10 today.
The budget also eliminates several hundred jobs. Many of these positions are vacant or will transfer to the San Francisco International Airport line, but 26 people would see pink slips.
The gloomy forecast sent the BART board Thursday into a crabby, five-hour session that devolved into heated bickering over whether to tack new parking fees onto the list.
Director Tom Radulovich of San Francisco failed to win support for his oft-revived universal parking-fee plea, but he and his colleagues face plenty of controversy.
BART labor unions asked the board to avert recom-mended lay-offs and ax vacant positions instead.
A union-hired financial consultant contends that BART has an excessive number of vacancies on the books and uses the openings to preserve invisible department budget reserves.
"BART had 160 vacancies as of March," said union budget analyst Paul Worthman. "Out of 160 openings, can't BART find 26 vacant jobs and
keep from putting 26 people on the street?"
BART typically has 100 vacancies at any given time and budgets accordingly, countered Deputy General Manager Dorothy Dugger.
The other 60 openings may involve critical functions and BART managers based cuts on duties rather than vacancy status, she said.
Staff cuts constitute nearly half the budget fix next fiscal year, which starts July 1, and most of the board members have indicated they will support reductions.
Impacts on riders also garnered considerable anguish as the board contemplated a series of increases designed to keep the agency solvent and operable next year and beyond.
BART does not blame January's 5 percent fare hike but the agency recently logged its 22nd consecu-tive month of ridership declines.
Even after the SFO line opens in June, BART expects ridership to remain below 2000 levels.
In addition, the board must worry about how to keep trains in working order. The staff has suggested a 5-cent per trip surcharge to raise cash for everything from seismic retrofits to car replacement.
Engineers estimate BART needs $2.2 billion over the next decade for system renovations and $1.6 billion to seismically strengthen the Transbay
Tube and other segments.
To add to the sense of doom, BART budget analyst Rob Umbreit outlined three huge fiscal hits coming in 2005 and later.
BART must in 2005 resume paying $8 million to $10 million into the state retirement system. Until the economic slide, the fund earned sufficient profits to cover the payments.
The state also mandated retiree medical benefit cost changes expected in 2006 and the agency's favorable federal electric power contract ends in 2007. The board will hold a public hearing on the budget May 22.
Lisa Vorderbrueggen covers transportation and
growth. Reach her:925-945-773/lvorderb@cctimes.com
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ
Bart Reed
User ID: 1606604 May 9th 11:01 PM
Oakland Tribune: Friday, April 25, 2003
BART begins looking at fare increases; Ridership keeps dropping, but directors need to balance
By Sean Holstege
Staff Writer
It took the BART Board of Directors 4-1/2 hours on Thursday just to set a public hearing next month at which it plans to balance a $38 million budget shortfall with fare increases that could reach 10 percent.
Directors wrangled, postured and cajoled as they framed the debate for May 22. They tried to set the political table with what would and would not be considered as BART enters its 22nd consecutive
month of declining ridership.
What was left on the table was a fare increase, along with a plan for regular fare adjustments linked to inflation and a surcharge on each ticket
to raise money toward the seismic strengthening of the Transbay Tube.
Even with all those increases, BART still would not be able to fully pay for the retrofit or cover its long-term capital needs.
If all fare increases are passed, BART riders would pay $3.20 for a one-way ticket from Berkeley to Embarcadero, $3.15 from Dublin/
Pleasanton to Coliseum and $3.55 from Fremont to 12th Street Oakland.
What got nowhere was an effort to change the parking rules to require all BART riders to pay for parking, even though directors consider the current system of reserved parking to be a failed
experiment.
Not discussed was what they did last year -- service cuts, even as ridership fell from 333,000 two years ago to 296,000.
"Even with the proposed budget cuts, service levels will be maintained and the customer experience should remain steady," said Paul Overseier, BART's operations chief.
BART will be "unlike every other transit system in the Bay Area which faces the awful combination of raising fares and cutting service."
To balance its $461 million operating budget, BART
is proposing to cut 126 positions and lay off 26 workers, even after fare increases.
BART's unions told the elected board on Thursday that no layoffs were needed. Using BART's own numbers, a union economist found that the transit district had 139 more vacancies than had been accounted for and 14 positions had been kept open since the 1990s. Union reps cried foul.
"I represent employees at 35 public agencies, and all of them are dealing with severe budget cuts.
All of them say that before they lay anybody off, they'll eliminate vacant positions," said Larry
Hendel, East Bay director for Service Employees International Union Local 790.
"But you have a different policy -- and it is a policy. It's a hidden way to save money."
BART General Manager Tom Margro later acknowledged
in an interview that extra vacancies are kept on the books.
Key positions
He said what matters is not the number, but which key positions are filled and, without the cushion,
more employees would be getting laid off.
If not for the opening of a new extension to San Francisco International Airport, the budget could have been even more painful.
June 22 opening
The June 22 opening of the extension allows BART to add 283 SFO-line jobs and to retain 79 of its own workers.
The Peninsula service will run with three extra trains, with no change in the current schedule, Overseier said. BART can afford it because of cost-sharing agreements with San Mateo County.
Service cuts or retention are in the eye of the beholder. Essentially, BART will run the core system and the SFO extension with roughly the same number of people.
And as BART wraps up an overhaul of its rail fleet, elevators, escalators, ticket machines and turnstiles, it needs to spend less money maintaining what had always been finicky machinery. That translates to less overtime and fewer mechanics.
Contact Sean Holstege: sholstege@angnewspapers.com
Þ-®-Þ-®-Þ