Above is the agenda for the final Board meeting of 2014, which just began a few minutes ago.
You can also listen to the meeting online by clicking here or by listening over the phone by dialing 213-922-6045.
I’ll post any interestingness that develops from the meeting on Metro’s Twitter account and on this blog.
This is also the first Board meeting for the two new County Supervisors, Sheila Kuehl and Hilda Solis.
Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects
A serious topic that needs to be discussed is the decline in the quality of services provided. Metro seems to be spending more time focusing on expanding the system while the quality and timeliness of the operators goes down. It’s understandable that operators need to be moved around and there are certain variables to contend with while on the road but when a route is on time one day out of the week there is a larger problem at hand. On more than one occasion, either myself or someone else has had to stand next to the operator and let them know where the stops are because their management could not provide instructions for the route. When it comes to schedules, the time tables provided feel more like a suggestion not to mention the daily breakdowns.
Looking at how Metro operates from an outside perspective, it seems that management refuses to look at the system as a whole. There are blogs on travel sites that advise tourists not to rely on public transportation here because of its unreliability.
“Metro seems to be spending more time focusing on expanding the system while the quality and timeliness of the operators goes down.”
If you were a politician, which would you choose to see which has a better chance of being re-elected by the voters? Spend billions of dollars to expand the system or spend billions of dollars making the quality better? People want to go from Santa Monica to Azusa on a single seat ride for $1.75. Nevermind that it makes no fiscal sense to charge a flat rate fare whether you go 1 mile or 40+ miles, nevermind the facts that not many people need to go to Santa Monica to Azusa, but that’s what the people want. And if that’s what the people want, that’s what the politicians see as way to get the votes to keep them in office.
How about a possible 3% service cut (page 24) which would result in more crowded buses during peak hours, elimination of service to Disneyland and Malibu, reduction of service on bus lines that parallel rail, and eliminating four Rapid bus lines? How serious is Metro staff about this proposal? http://media.metro.net/board/Items/2014/12_december/20141204rbmitem4.pdf
I think the best interpretation is that these are a list of possible ideas for reducing costs but that these are also ideas that the Metro Board of Directors haven’t vetted yet, much less approved.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source