A Streetcar Named Deserted

Sacramento residents keep hearing and reading about how ridership on Regional Transit’s Light Rail is up – regardless of the fact that city residents rarely see a train with many people on it. I refer to any passing light rail train as A Streetcar Named Deserted.

In 1974 Regional Transit took over Sacramento’s Blue Bus system. Ridership had been strong in the 1950’s and 1960’s, but then, in the 1970’s, politicians added mandatory social planning to transit, creating mandatory subsidies, eventually turning Regional Transit into a rolling welfare system for those who can’t and won’t pay for their transit. For everyone else, it’s full fare. Subsidies should never be 100% but the county Health and Human Services department (welfare) hands out free bus passes to their “clients,” just in case they use the bus to go looking for a job.

When Regional Transit made the decision in 1974 to add Light Rail to the existing bus system, they began the decades-long process of ignoring the successful bus system in Sacramento, and instead pouring everything into trains.

The bus system was successful because Regional Transit actually focused on moving people where they lived, work, shopped and recreated. With the addition of light rail, the bus system was dramatically altered to feed light rail instead of continuing to move people where they needed to go. The bus system continues to this day, to feed light rail even though most Regional Transit users are actually bus riders.

And where would RT be today without the massive subsidies it receives from the city, county, state and federal government?  

Regional Transit has also developed into a massive bureaucracy from its once efficiently-run management. In 1974 there were 200 buses and 4 executive management positions. Today, there are 200 buses and 300 executive management positions. RT staffers use to develop routes in one day; today it takes one year to implement route and service changes.

And then there is the Board of Directors… this is another board that is stuffed with nothing but City Council members and County supervisors, accountable to no one and who vote to approve their own spending. The Sacramento County Taxpayers League is not even allowed to sit on this board. Regional Transit has NO oversight – and these are our tax dollars they so recklessly and cavalierly spend.

Regional Transit plays games with perception as well. The bus routes that used to work so well for riders have been chopped up in order to feed light rail trains, and to make RT look as if it’s doing more. One tactic RT uses to make it seem they are expanding and successful is to add route numbers, but does this by chopping up routes. One would think that fewer routes would look more successful… and efficient.

Regional Transit has an interesting complaint policy as well. Regional Transit gets frequent complaints from disabled transit users – apparently there are some bus drivers who don’t stop for disabled citizens. But the union policy at Regional Transit is an embarrassment; the complaining party has to appear in person to face the driver being accused of wrongdoing. And if the complaining party does not show up, the complaint never makes it to the Regional Transit employee’s personnel file. Hmmm. Sounds a little fishy.

And where is the Board on this issue? Isn’t this just one more example of the City’s lack of customer service that keeps rearing its ugly head?

Ask any guy you know if he encourages his wife or daughter use the bus or ride light rail; it’s always an emphatic NO. For the millions spent on security guards, light rail is dangerous. It’s easy to see (from my car) the punks and thugs standing and yelling at riders on the trains, while riders try to ignore them. The thugs know that there is little enforcement – even for jumping on a train without a ticket.

Regional Transit needs a massive top-to-bottom overhaul. General Manager Mike Wiley should start with his top staff; a few demotions and job redundancy eliminations would do wonders for the budget. Streamlining tickets prices by lowering fares and making everyone pay would actually bring in revenue. But can any of this be done without the union screaming? That's another discussion.