Lack of Focus
Posted by Fred Jandt
Editor, Mass Transit magazine
I have three small children (all of them 10 or younger) and sometimes it’s a bear to get them to focus on a particular topic. There is just so much out there to grab their attention these days — video games, television, the Internet — that sometimes you have to sit them down and make them focus on what’s in front of them. Unfortunately, transit has that lack of focus, too. Don’t mind the funding crisis, there’s a strike in Ottawa, and there’s the presidential inauguration, and the Super Bowl is next week — how are they handling the crowds — and, oh, you have your own troubles to deal with.
Did you know the whole situation with AIG failing and transit agencies isn’t over? A story came out on Monday that NJ Transit is looking at losing $150 million if the company goes under. What you thought this was done? Didn’t the government pump money into AIG? Yep, they did, but it is still only clinging to solvency. And meanwhile agencies across the country are holding their collective breath.
That whole situation kind of got swept aside in the wake of the inauguration. Sure government money was spent, but then focus shifted to other news. Ottawa’s continuing strike. The BART shooting. The economic recovery bill with its promises of funding.
Now the president is fighting to get his stimulus package through Congress. This bill means a nearly $10 billion investment for the transit industry. More than we’ve seen in a long time, but still less than 10 percent of the total of that bill.
That’s like getting five bucks from your grandpa and realizing that he had fifty that he split between you and your brother and sister. Thanks … I think.
So here we are again. Transit that moved a million people in a single day in Washington, D.C., and is showing people just how valued it is in Ottawa is on the verge of bankruptcy in several places.
And we’re not paying attention. No one is. Transit gets a reticent grunt of thanks when it does a good job, but when there is a problem people riot, scream for change and worst of all, shake their heads and say that’s why they don’t use it.
Transit needs to tell the government thanks for the money, but it’s not enough. It’s not compensation for everything transit does. Transit doesn’t move this country, it keeps this country moving. And we need to make Congress sit down and focus on that for a bit.
Before they get pulled off on the latest thing to steal their attention.
Thanks for reading the MT Position updated every Friday,
Fred
fred.jandt@cygnusb2b.com
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January 30th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Yeah! A funny thing happened on the way to the stimulus package: Transit got reduced to a little more than one percent of the total, and the biggest chunk of the entire package went to tax cuts.
Fortunately, there was a little bump to $12B in transit funding in the House bill. It’s anyone’s guess whether that will survive through to the final version of the legislation, and whether any of it will be able to be used to pay off those AIG leases.
Rather than pay it off, though, it seems like a simple matter for the federal gov’t to take over the guarantor role from AIG – but like you say, no one’s focusing on this.
February 1st, 2009 at 10:02 pm
“Transit gets a reticent grunt of thanks when it does a good job…”
…and even that’s a rare occurance.
“Attaboys” in the transit industry are rare. When the kudos are short, the people you’ve depended on to bust their asses for the cause will become complacent and the whole effort grinds to a slow crawl. The logic applies in every department…from the general office, to the shops, to the yards, garages, suppliers and vendors. Consultants feel it, as do the lobbyists and the elected officials that have say over the funding.
Zen philosphies say we must love ourselves before we can be expected to be loved by others. I’m not exactly saying we should form a circle and sing “Kumbaya”, but we could stand to look at the big picture and appreciate each others small efforts that contribute to the greater good.
Namaste.