MCTS Budget

[Juniorz]

2014 Proposed Transit Budget, a few surprises but none surprising

5600-DOT-Transit.pdf

[ctrabs74]

2014 Proposed Transit Budget, a few surprises but none surprising

I like that Milwaukee is introducing one- and three-day passes once their new fare system is implemented. Would like to see more transit systems look at that as a viable option (coughcoughcough, Pittsburgh).

[Juniorz]

Looks like that New Fare System won't be ready until Late December, Early January. They are still building it, apparently their were a couple of hicups with the old manager director finalizing somethings. The other concern being that the MetroEXpress might not make it through 2014 without some additional grant money & on a good note, no services cut, GPS Real Time Transit Tracker (ala CTA Bus Tracker) & ADA compliance Audio Announcements aboard buses (ala MR. CTA) via MR. MCTS (will they use The same guy that does the CTA Automated Voice, he's from Milwaukee) seem to be additions that will enhance the system. Congrades MCTS

[See Tea Eh]

2014 Proposed Transit Budget, a few surprises but none surprising

A frew surprises, but none surprising? Huh? Doesn't that sentence contradict itself?

What surprises me is that peak vehicle count is supposed to go up by 8 buses (despite no change to service levels...not sure how that's supposed to work), but buses in the fleet goes down by 24. Proposed fleet will be 391 next year. I don't know what's still in service, but I'm guessing the 4400s will be parked (and any remaining 4300s, if there are any left).

This brings their spare ratio down to 14.6% from 24.6%. Granted, 24.6% is kind of high for a fleet that isn't necessarily in that bad of shape (I recall MCTS having some decent maintenance).

In the late 1990s, MCTS's fleet count was in the low to mid 500s. Now, it's dropping below 400. Kinda sad, when you think about it.

Funding for the Express routes requested for next year, but it sounds like there won't be any funding after that. You know the governor isn't going to be proposing major increases in transit funding, so it will be up to the county to find the cash somewhere, or service gets cut again. If that happens, the fleet count will probably drop even more.

[busfan2]

The express funding is a line o questioned. Will they have funding through the year. Unfortunately talk radio is no friend to transit in Milwaukee and we know the voter approved sales tax to approve transit finding died at the former county executives office. We will probably end up paying for a new basketball arena.