February 22, 2012
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The five biggest lies about highway tolls
Written by Jim Cameron
Thursday, 09 February 2012 00:00
Like it or not, get ready to pay tolls on our interstates and parkways. Transportation officials in Hartford say there’s just no other way to raise badly needed money for overdue infrastructure repairs. Tolls may not be popular, but neither are collapsing bridges.
In the last decade’s debate on highway tolling, here are the five biggest lies that opponents have used to stall the return of highway tolls:
The federal government won’t let us, also known as “We’ll have to return millions in federal funding.” Not true, as U.S. Department of Transportation officials told us at a South Western Regional Planning Agency-sponsored meeting in Westport years ago. The federal government regularly allows tolls to be used as traffic mitigation and revenue raising tools.Congress tells commuters: ‘Drop dead’
Written by Jim Cameron
Thursday, 26 January 2012 00:00
Back in 1975 when New York City was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, then-President Ford declined to offer help and the New York Daily News’ headline screamed “Ford to City: Drop Dead.”
Well, last month the U.S. Congress said about the same thing to us users of mass transit. In their quagmire of inaction, bickering and partisanship, they let expire an important tax benefit to commuters. Whether you drove or took mass transit, you used to be able to spend up to $230 a month in pre-tax dollars to fund your commute. But by not acting to extend the law, that benefit dropped to $125 a month for riders of mass transit but increased to $240 a month for drivers’ parking expenses.
What? Commuters who ride the train, bus or subway get screwed but drivers get a benefits hike? Yes, friends, it’s all true and you have Congress to thank.Metro-North makes a pledge to passengers
Written by Jim Cameron
Thursday, 12 January 2012 00:00
Never let a crisis go to waste. With that philosophy, the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council has turned last July’s stranding of a train full of desperate passengers into something which will benefit every rider of Metro-North: “The Passenger Pledge.”
That incident, on the hottest day of the year, showed several failures on the part of the railroad: Poor communications, lack of coordination with first responders and the need for better training of conductors. While the railroad has taken the first tentative steps to remedy those problems, the Commuter Council wanted to go further.
At the suggestion of State Sen. Toni Boucher, in August the council drafted a “Passenger Bill of Rights” enumerating what passengers should expect in exchange for a ticket. Some of those “rights” seemed pretty obvious: Heat in the winter, AC in the summer, lighting and clean restrooms. We even dared to suggest that every passenger should get a seat, a concept quickly rejected by the railroad.Shh! Quiet cars arrive on Metro-North in Connecticut
Written by Jim Cameron
Thursday, 22 December 2011 00:00
More than 10 years ago the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council first proposed the idea of “quiet cars” on Metro-North. They seemed to work just fine on Amtrak, first introduced in 2001 at the request of passengers. And other commuter lines across the U.S. also adopted the idea, usually to great acclaim.
For the most part, the rules are self-enforced by passengers. Those whose phones start ringing are quickly reminded they are in the wrong car and they usually move. There have been exceptions, including a celebrated case last spring on Amtrak when a woman was arrested for yacking for 16 hours on her cell phone and refusing to move from the quiet car.
But over the years Metro-North refused even a small trial. The idea was summarily rejected by management as unworkable. Conductors didn’t have time to police the “library-like” requirements, they said (though they seemed to have no trouble enforcing no smoking, no feet on seats and other rules). And passengers wouldn’t abide by the rules anyway.
What Metro-North can learn from the Swiss
Written by Jim Cameron
Thursday, 17 November 2011 00:00
Just back from 12 glorious (and outrageously expensive) days in Europe, I have some train tales to tell, and some advice for America’s railroads.
Despite its small size, Switzerland boasts some of the best trains in the world. Not the fastest (that would be France), but certainly the most dependable. Here are a few things Metro-North could learn from the Swiss railroads.
On time means on time: Metro-North defines “on time” as being within five minutes and 59 seconds of schedule, an industry standard in the U.S. When I explained this to a conductor in Switzerland he laughed and asked “How can a train be late and still be on time?” Exactly. In this tiny country you can set your watch by the trains coming and going.More Articles...
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