The Philadelphia Tribune was able to pin down the four declared candidates and get their positions on the state of mass transit in Philadelphia.
Without reading it thoroughly, let me see if can sum up what they said:
Chaka Fattah: My campaign will be putting out a detailed position paper on transit in the coming weeks.
Dwight Evans: I got (insert dollar amount here) in funding for SEPTA already but I have nothing to say about what I'll do going forward.
Michael Nutter: I'm going to blow it up and start over.
Tom Knox: SEPTA is important. I know what budgets are and I know we need to get more money.
Anyone else have their own spin on what they said? Feel free to sound off in the comments.
Comments (5)
Well, they all seem to have had at least one specific suggestion.
- Fattah likes London's "congestion tax" and thinks it might be a good idea to have one in Philly (presumeably in addition to the wage, additional 1% sales tax and bridge tolls that commuters already pay). He also crows about the financial assistance he secured for businesses along the El construction -- which makes me wonder if maybe the funding could've gone toward completing the project faster (I guess it depends on whether the project has been held up at all by lack of funding).
- Evans seems to be proud that he was endoresed by SEPTA's Transport Workers' Union Local 234 for "his work on fighting for the rights of its workers" (does that mean he supported the union contract approved after the 2005 strike that doesn't allow SEPTA to hire part-time or contract workers, among other things?). And, yes, he also seems to have provided some transit funding during his time in Harrisburg.
- This is one area Nutter can't really say he did a whole lot about while in city council although, as with the school district, it's more under state control than city control. He's also caught some flack for not being able to avoid a long delay in operation of the route 15 trolley. However, he once again has the most targetted suggestions for fixing the problem. Like all the others, he says funding's the biggest issues, but I also like the "back to basics" suggestion of "expanding hours and improving reliability." Being carless and septa dependent, I would love to have really clean, state-of-the-art stations and such, but the very first thing septa needs to do is maximize the usefulness of the current system. It's ludicrous that, when a train transfer is necessary, you often spend more time waiting at the transfer point than riding the train. It would also be nice if the trains ran until 2-3am on weekends so that I wouldn't have to take a much slower shuttle bus to get home when I go out. Better customer service and communication from SEPTA would also be great.
- Knox threw out the idea of looking for private funding for septa. I don't know if this has been tried, or how much luck he would have, but it would certainly be nice. He didn't say much else, though.
Posted by Dave![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://blogs.phillynews.com/dailynews/nextmayor/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 12, 2007 7:36 PM
Fattah and Evans make perfect arguments for why they should remain in Congress and the State House, respectively, and work to get more Federal and State funding directed toward SEPTA. I'm looking at you too, Bob Brady.
Posted by Brian | January 12, 2007 8:15 PM
SEPTA's governance model prevents City Hall from even TOUCHING SEPTA.
So praytell... how is Philadelphia going to convince Harrisburg legislators, besides our local state assembly reps and Fumo, that more control of the transit authority should be given to the City of Philadelphia and not left to a board where the city is in the minority on the board and the suburban counties and the Governor of Pennsylvania are in the majority?
Fat chance, I say.
The new mayor and HBG is just going to toss more cash at SEPTA and someone take Faye Moore to the ACME to show her where you can buy bleach and mops and clean up the subway stations and staircases.
SEPTA won't be held accountable for its capital and operating outlays because there is NO higher authority to seek redress for SEPTA's failures.
SEPTA has no profit motive.
And at the minimum, there isn't even a meritocracy in place within SEPTA to endorce a self-perpetuating environment of betterment for its customers or the condition of SEPTA's property that it owns.
Those failures have left us with a urine-soaked SEPTA that makes you want to minimize your use of it as much as possible rather than take advantage of the wonderful infrastructure that it has and is a dear asset to our city.
Posted by Christopher | January 12, 2007 8:31 PM
Hmm, that's a good question about token machines dispensing only 2+ tokens. I don't know the answer, but would speculate that you're getting a volume discount ($0.70 off each trip for buying more than one token), and that's why you can't get only one.
BTW, there's also a discussion on this topic going on here:
http://www.phillyblog.com/philly/showthread.php?t=29823
Posted by Dave![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://blogs.phillynews.com/dailynews/nextmayor/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 14, 2007 1:17 PM
BTW, in my first response, I meant to say "wage tax" instead of just "wage"
Also, and this is a bit off-topic but related to Fattah's "congestion tax" suggestion, I'm under the impression that many "commuters" (I.e. private consultants who live outside the city) have to pay the BPT (Business Priviledge Tax) on income they make from city residents, causing many of them to avoid doing business in the city. And, just to drop the other shoe, there are a lot of private consultants living in Philadelphia who mostly do business with clients who live outside the city who are required to pay the BPT only because they live in the city (if they move to the 'burbs and continue to do business with people who live in the 'burbs, they will no longer have to pay the BPT).
Posted by Dave![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://blogs.phillynews.com/dailynews/nextmayor/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 14, 2007 1:45 PM