Portland’s transit agency, TriMet, is building one of the most expensive light-rail lines ever and is planning several more. Yet the agency is running out of money. The cost of maintaining rail lines grows rapidly as they approach 30 years of age, and TriMet’s oldest line was opened for business 28 years ago.
Click image to download the Secretary of State’s audit of TriMet (5.6-MB pdf).
An audit of TriMet by Oregon’s Secretary of State finds that the agency is already falling behind its maintenance needs. A decade ago, it was completing 92 percent of track maintenance and 100 percent of signal maintenance on time. Today those numbers have fallen to 53 percent for track and 72 percent for signals.
The craving levitra no prescription look these up for nicotine reduces by consumption of this wonderful fruit. Medicines sale viagra in fact help one to get out of his addiction. Wheeler said if he was 100% sure the track would be hit by a bad storm, he would lobby NASCAR to stop the event to help relocate fans beneath the grandstands in an orderly fashion. “NASCAR would not usually put out the yellow or red flag until it actually started raining,” Wheeler said. “I had a problem with this, because often lightning begins (before that). buy viagra online in It improves secretion of testosterone and strengthens the weak nerves and tissues and makes them active. viagra online for women
The audit also found that the agency has an $852 million unfunded health care liability for its current and past employees, not to mention a $274 million pension liability. It could have nearly funded both of those liability if it hadn’t built its currently under construction Milwaukie rail line. Of course, the agency will argue that the funds available for construction weren’t available for pensions and health care, but that’s not entirely true: half the $1.5 billion cost came from a federal capital grant program, but the other half are state and local funds that aren’t dedicated to capital improvements.
The same is going to be true of light-rail lines currently in planning stages to Tigard, Lake Oswego, and Vancouver, Washington. (The Lake Oswego line is currently dormant, but these things never really die.)
TriMet’s solution, of course, is to renegotiate the union contracts to reduce benefits or make the employees pay a larger share of their pension and health-care plans. Good luck with that. Other cities that propose to build rail transit lines need to know that doing so will obligate them to huge costs for many decades, or until taxpayers get tired of supporting long-obsolete technologies.
I am surprised the Antiplanner fell for the government agency propaganda. Of course Tri-Met and every other government agency does not want to cut union benefits. But they need to make that proposal so as to give the union ammunition to rally its troops to increase funding for the agency.
School districts do this same dance every year with their unions, threatening to lay off front line teachers so that the union can politic to raise school spending.
It is just the game planners play.
“Of course, the agency will argue that the funds available for construction weren’t available for pensions and health care, but that’s not entirely true: half the $1.5 billion cost came from a federal capital grant program”
This is the biggest cause of boondoggle waste. The feds make money available if you build something new (whether needed or not). No self-respecting transit agency could ever turn down fed $, so they build something that is not needed and they cannot afford to run.
Similar things happen in education. Huge sums are provided if you build new schools (often with elaborately wasteful spaces) but then the cities complain they have no $ for books etc. In most cases, a fraction of the new school cost could have provided book and computer funds for years to come.
Sandy,
Just exactly what propaganda did I fall for? There is no doubt that TriMet blames the union contracts, rather than the high costs of rail transit, for its woes. I express skepticism about whether it can actually renegotiate those contracts and whether those are the real source of the agency’s problems. (They are a problem, but spending too much on rail is an even greater problem.)
There is no doubt that TriMet blames the union contracts, rather than the high costs of rail transit, for its woes.
Both are to blame.
I express skepticism about whether it can actually renegotiate those contracts
If they can’t, everyone in Portland is in real trouble. Trimet offers what happens to quite possibly be the most ridiculously generous benefits in the country. It should go without saying that these benefits need to be renegotiated. This is in addition to needing to stop the rail boondoggle and redevelopment spree the agency and Metro is on.
In the end, it’s probably best if Trimet just crashes and burns.
It’s important to remember that the fact that about one third of miles driven are for social or recreational purposes does not mean that these miles were driven for the joy of driving. All trips taken for social or recreational purposes fall in this category. If I drive somewhere to see a friend or relative, see a movie or attend a game or any social or recreational purpose it is qualified as a social-recreational trip, even if I don’t enjoy the drive at all.
Antiplanner –
My point was that the transportation agency leaders are in bed with the unions. The agency leaders and the union knew the pensions were underfunded and didn’t care, because they knew the taxpayers would end up paying up later. Later on, the agency leaders pretend to want the unions to give back something, the union then riles up its membership to agitate the press and the public, and then the solution is to give the agency more money.
Call me cynical, but I believe this report is a calculated maneuver to drum up support for some new tax or fee, probably a sales tax on top of all the others. Only time will indicated whether I was correct or hopelessy paranoid.
Sandy Teal wrote:
My point was that the transportation agency leaders are in bed with the unions.
In spite of the often-adversary relationship between transit agency managers and transit unions, I believe you are correct – both always want more money from taxpayers.
The agency leaders and the union knew the pensions were underfunded and didn’t care, because they knew the taxpayers would end up paying up later.
Agreed.
Later on, the agency leaders pretend to want the unions to give back something, the union then riles up its membership to agitate the press and the public, and then the solution is to give the agency more money.
Yes. Aside from not providing people in the Tri-Met area any transit service at all (not an option, IMO), there is a way to break this cycle. Outsource all transit operating labor to the private sector through competitive tendering. Tri-Met becomes an agency that orders, manages and coordinates service.
Suprised? I’m not. That’s because I realized some time ago that public transportation is not the real goal of the liberal democrat controlled TriMet agency. The real goal of TriMet is to funnel billions of dollars of public/tax dollars to democrat’s friends and unions who then turn around and support the liberal democrats. To do that they plan and construct no vote or voter rejected light rail lines. Of course if you have seen how they are throwing money at the Milwaukie light rail line to build it you know that it is LIGHT in name and need only. It is probably one of the most heavy duty rail lines ever built on earth. The full scale railroad tracks at Brooklyn yard pail in comparison.
How did I come to that concusion? Well, that’s because funneling billions of dollars to democrat supporters is the only thing light rail does well, and it does it very well indeed. What light rail doesn’t do well is everything else liberals tell us it does.
1. They call it “Rapid Transit” – Does the average speed of 18 MPH seem rapid to you?
2. Energy efficiant & non-poluting- Light rail is Portland’s biggest coal fired plant electricity user already. Using energy at the “Point of use” is far and away the most efficient way to use energy. So where is electricity generated? Way way off.
3. Cost effective- It will never pay for it’s self, never and as you read they can’t even afford to maintain already existing ligt rail.
4. Green house gas and global warming reduction. See number 2. What’ more is that AGM is a hoax anyway. AGW it a tool being used by liberals to gain power and transfer wealth. They have domination and trillions of dollars at stake so of course there will be no end to their attacking the true science.
Don’t believe me? Sound like a right wing kook to you? Check out Henrik Svensmark’s “The Cloud Mystery” on you tube sometime. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANMTPF1blpQ
5. Traffic conjestion releaf. No light rail doesn’t do that ether. It just puts bus riders in rail cars, not car riders and commercial traffic is served not served be light rail at all.
The bottom line is that all light rail really does well is throw billions of tax dollars to democrat supporters.
That’s exactly why democrat Gov. Kitzhber is pushing for the multi-billion dollar CRC light rail bridge with no additional traffic lanes for congestion relief. Democrats need to get the next boondoggle light rail going for when the Milwaukie light rail construction is completed.
OT: Go Denver!