Railroad Forums
Moderator: AlexC
jfrey40535 wrote:Did SEPTA raise the threshhold for min daily boardings at stations?
Its a shame to see more stations go.SEPTA can gain more riders by speeding up the service than it will lose at Angora. And while it's disappointing to have to close the station, SEPTA made several marketing and promotional efforts in the area, and the community members who wanted the station kept open had an opportunity to tell people "use it or lose it."
jfrey40535 wrote:Yet city taxpayers have to bear the brunt of the subsidy for the railroads which they are losing access to.But those who ride the rails (mostly from the suburbs, whether because of closed city stations or economics doesn't matter) are mostly going downtown where they pay city wage taxes... eat at restaurants... pay gross business receipt taxes... etc. Yes the city taxpayers have a greater burden, but we also benefit the most from the railroad's existence (how many people would take jobs out of the city if they had to drive?).
Yet city taxpayers have to bear the brunt of the subsidy for the railroads which they are losing access to.What about the rest of Pa's tax payers who never had access to it? What about the taxpayers who will have to bail it out soon?
Closing little-used stations, be they urban or suburban, is really only eliminating redundancy and making the entire system more efficient.Hear hear. As a former regular R7 rider, I didn't miss Andalusia or Frankford Junction. Is Eddington still open?
jfrey40535 wrote:Yet city taxpayers have to bear the brunt of the subsidy for the railroads which they are losing access to.No they don't. Local subsidy is a relatively small part of SEPTA's budget, contrary to the mayor's b****ing. The state pays three times as much. And the county shares are by a standard formula. The city pays a smaller share for the railroad than it does for city transit. The city does pay the majority of the railroad's local subsidy, but then again it also has the majority of the railroad's boarding passengers (half of whom are boarding at the Center City stations.
AlexC wrote:What about the rest of Pa's tax payers who never had access to it? What about the taxpayers who will have to bail it out soon?Yes, transit directly serves a limited constituency. But by the same reasoning, so do police and fire protection, and in some worldviews, so do public schools. Turning every service into a pay-as-you-go, point-of-use operation would price them out of the market. Thus that nebulous thing called "society" deems certain functions to be sufficiently beneficial to the population as a whole that all citizens are expected to contribute via taxation. The killer is deciding what services to subsidize and at what level of taxation, so you don't end up with either suffocating socialism at one end of the spectrum or a Wild West free-for-all at the other.
AlexC wrote:What I have a problem with is these semi-governmental bureaucracies that operate without a real care for expenses, knowing that politicans will rob Peter to pay Paul and bail them out.Absolutely. I wouldn't have a problem paying another 1/2% in the sales tax or a few cents more at the pump if I felt the money would do some good, but it doesn't work that way in this state. SEPTA needs dedicated funding but the flip side is that they have to be accountable to someone or something other than their own internal processes. As it is, everyone can point fingers but no one has to take responsibility.
Where's the accountability in Septa? For any of their actions, decisions and choices?
It's a total political racket. They know it. You know it. Everyone does.
Yet, we're now going to bend over backwards looking for more money to feed this beast, only to get what? A few more months? a year? and then back in the same position.
It's tiresome.
