Buffalo Rising Online

Sell it to the highest bidder. Why is government in the transportation business again?

Imagine them in the restaurant business with a monopoly. (You do know it's a crime to compete with the NFTA?)

government is in the transportation business becasue generally it's not profitable, infrastructure costs are enormous. we pay for the airport, pay for the bus terminal, pay for the highways, all so private bus lines, airlines, auto companies can profit.

Dear Lord, Buffalo here... we pray for world peace, an end to world hunger, and Metro Rail expansion. Oh, and you can throw a few extra jobs our way too. Amen.

Hoss> I hope they don't get rid of the coin operated TV's. A relic from the 70's, that at this point are museum worthy. All those other transportation centers, they can keep their free wifi. I'd much rather catch an episode of Sanford and Son, or Soap, while awaiting my bus. This city is anachronism defined. I friggin' love it.

Those televisions reflect the genuine old-school authenticity of the Buffalo area. They're black-and-white, too. Relic? I say they're historic. Cities all over the country probably regret ditching such "relics" from their now-sterile, plastic and yuppified bus depots. You're right; they can keep their Starbucks and WiFi. I'll take genuine, real Buffalo flavor anyday.

"Why is government in the transportation business again?" Because the market failed. Ever since WWII ALL transportation including cars has been heavily subsidized by the government. Fact of life is not everything works because of the invisible hand.

maybe a bronze statue of vincent gallo looking for the bathroom

I think since the Canal Harbor has changed and the intermodal station is out.. ..sniff.. ..sniff.. then the NFTA should move forward with these changes. The bus station isn't very well integrated into downtown and should be easier to get to and from. Ideally Amtrak could be tied into the same location but that is going to have to wait I guess.

it just makes so much sense to have Train, Subway & buses together in a central hub to make transferring easier. Think about someone getting off the bus from NYC that needs to go to South Campus for college. Sure it is only a couple blocks but:

A. There isn't any sign telling you that. So you are immediately lost. B. Not very easy with a suitcase or 4 depending on the individual.

Same with the Amtrak station. We have these pieces of the puzzle but they are not connected or oriented to one another in any shape or way. I do hope that a part of that 19 million talks about wayfinding.

You got me. I guess I won't post anymore; too rough around here.

Just kidding.

The subject is bus transportation. We’ll talk about roads some other time.

Why is the government in the bus industry? Why is it illegal to compete with the inefficient, incompetent, wasteful government bus service?

Can't we do better than a 19th century model where old ladies freeze their rear ends off in below zero weather waiting for a 90% empty bus? Do any of you (who criticized me) wish to join us in the 21st century?

Surely, once it ceases to be a crime to start a business in New York State, we could have flexible van service, door-to-door, with computer-generated routes.

Yikes!

It won't ever happen here because unions would never let our govt do it, but actually some cities have outsourced portions of managing and operating public transit to private sector cos such as Veolia.

http://tinyurl.com/5pgrgn

In the majority of Veolia's 130 contracts in the U.S. and Canada, the company is responsible for the full gamut of transit operations, providing contracted services to transit authorities. However, in addition to this large number of operating contracts, Veolia also has management contracts for four transit systems - Pensacola, Fla.; Phoenix, Ariz.; and Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem, N.C. These four contracts will be added to the 15 managed by PTM, as the PTM team will now serve as Veolia's transit management division.

Als see wikipedia entry for Veolia. Lists a lot of cities world wide, incl in the U.S. - Austin, Boston, Denver, Vegas, Miami, Phoenix, San Diego, suburban D.C.

This place is in desperate need of a renovation and retail options for those who not only have to wait for for their bus, but for those of who live and work in the area. Many city bus terminals offer services like a book store, restaurants, gift shops, bout time Buffalo's did too.

You have to ask yourself, has the management of the NFTA lost money by their failure to place shops in their station or in their subway stations either? No.

When there is no incentive to serve the public, but every incentive to serve themselves, with fat salaries and bennies, that's what happens and no one should be surprised.

Abolish this authority and all the rest of them too.

Be radical; go to the root cause of the problem. After fifty years of decline, we have no other choice.

Over the last 50 years, the NFTA has probably been the worst government agency in Buffalo. Okay, HUD is tied.

Yet, when I attacked them, I got little or no support. That's sad.

Don’t be an unpaid PR firm for a failed bureaucracy.

""Why is government in the transportation business again?" Because the market failed. Ever since WWII ALL transportation including cars has been heavily subsidized by the government. Fact of life is not everything works because of the invisible hand."

Is this the final word? A scientific fact? Can you offer an argument for your assertion that the market (peaceful exchange) failed?

As far as the invisible hand, we haven’t had a market economy for some time, at least since about 1917. We have had a corporate state since that time of which the NFTA is a part. When you've been declining for 50 straight years, it's a good time to look at the nature of the failed regime and think about alternatives.

(Notice the corporate state was ushered in by war.)

Our economy is in great shape. Taxes are too low, subsidies are too low and public debt is too low. Let's spend more money on an unaccountable, hugely subsidized public transportation system.

don't get my wrong, I think the NFTA does a mediocre job on the best of days. I take the train, and a connecting bus route every day. Have taken the the train to and from college for too many years than I would like to mention and the buses for all of high school and even a bit of grammar school. So I feel like I pretty well understanding of the system from a user's perspective. I have ranted against many of their policies and stupid tactics but at the same time private corporations don't have the resources or will to create a transportation system that has the benefit of the public in the forefront. This was attempted in the 1800's when trains, trolleys. street-cars and eventually buses were all run by private corporations. (took a transportation planning class) but eventually none of them could afford to maintain infrastructure and once the newness wore off and reinvestment was necessary they all crumbled. Highways and roads are the same way, no company could ever generate enough money to build and maintain them. Just like sewer systems and electricity government is needed.

Does that mean we do it right? Far from it. The transportation systems in Germany and Japan are private corporations with support from the government and are really models for how to run the system. At the same time they have an urban development strategy that reinforces transit. We don't so there isn't any hope for a profitable public transportation system until we tackle the issues of urban sprawl and car dependence.

I agree with you that it should also be legal for a company to compete against the NFTA, i think it would force them to shape up or ship out. I actually didn't know it was illegal for competition. No wonder they got lazy in their years of service.

"This was attempted in the 1800's when trains, trolleys. street-cars and eventually buses were all run by private corporations. (took a transportation planning class) but eventually none of them could afford to maintain infrastructure and once the newness wore off and reinvestment was necessary they all crumbled."

I can't speak knowledgeably about that era but what you say runs contrary to how all other markets operate. Businesses make a profit and reinvest to keep the quality of the product high or lose sales. So, there must be some extraneous factor. Prices controls? Mandates to serve certain routes that should have been abandoned? Only further research could answer that. Many alleged failures of the market were actually caused by government intervention.

Keep in mind that the market is not some abstract alien entity. It’s simply the word we use to signify the sum total of all voluntary human transactions. Government, on the other hand, as GW and Mao would have agreed, is “force.”

fix the downtown train station too. they are both a joke right now