A report was released in mid-July detailing the benefits of public transportation on the environment and the economy, concluding that increasing public transportation is the “best — and possibly only — non-regulatory strategy for major environmental and energy gains.” It is available in its complete form online at www.PublicTransportation.org or www.apta.com.
Download the press release.
Download: APTApr0702.doc (35 KB).
Urbanized areas (sec. 5307) $3,445,939,606
Clean fuels (sec. 5308) $50,000,000
Elderly and disabled (sec. 5310) $90,652,801
Nonurbanized areas (sec. 5311) $240,607,643
Over-the-Road Bus Program $6,950,000
A Brief Summary, including limited Texas amounts, is available for Download in MSWord, and a more complete version of the bill as it affects the Federal Transit Administration is also available in portable document format (.pdf).
Download: SenCmteFY03 Sum.doc (43 KB).
Download: Sen Cmte 03 FTA.pdf (155.2 KB).
Bexar County voters authorized creation of VIA Metropolitan Transit 25 years ago, allowing for collection of a local 1/2-cent sales tax that has helped leverage federal funds for public transportation.
But mass transit in San Antonio dates to a century before VIA’s buses began rolling through the city in 1978.
Most local historians trace San Antonio’s early use of public transportation to 1878, when mule-drawn streetcars plodded through the area now called downtown. The first mule cars are said to have carried passengers between Main Plaza and San Pedro Park. By 1890, the mule-drawn cars were being replaced by electric streetcars. In 1901, local streetcar lines were consolidated under one provider, the San Antonio Traction Co., according to local historian T.R. Fehrenbach.
Read the entire article. Download the MS Word file.
Download: SanAntonio.doc (24 KB).
The Fort Worth Transportation Authority, The T, has now received the remaining balance of the 75 new CNG-fueled vehicles originally ordered to aid greater Fort Worths fight against air pollution. The T now has 90 percent of their 235 transit bus fleet fueled by the clean burning compressed natural gas (CNG). The fleet also becomes 100 percent accessible to people with disabilities. The 30- and 35-foot buses, manufactured by New Flyer, will allow the retirement of older diesel vehicles. The Dallas-Fort Worth region has been declared se4riously deficient in meeting federally-mandated air quality standards.
A new independent study by three top economists demonstrates that increasing Public Transportation use is the most effective, and possibly the only way to improve air quality and reduce energy consumption without imposing new taxes, government mandates or regulations. The Report, “Conserving Energy and Preserving the Environment: The Role of Public Transportation,” can be found in its entirety at http://www.apta.com/news/releases/energystudy.htm.
Capital Metro scored well in a state-required audit of how the agency ran its bus and transit operations from late 1996 to late 2000, when the agency struggled to recover from criminal investigations.
The audit praised Capital Metro for doing more to include the public in its decisions and programs and for starting such projects as a five-year plan to revamp the bus system. The agency provided more efficient service in 2000 than in 1996, the auditors concluded.
“What it validates to me is we have a good organization here,” President/CEO Fred Gilliam said. “It also validates the fact that improvements can be made.”
The report highlights several accomplishments: * Significant ridership increases, growing 32.6% from 1996-2000 * Cost efficiency and cost effectiveness of Capital Metro operations both improved during the audit period * Capital Metro operations are significantly more cost effective than its national peers * Quality, availability, and consistency of data have markedly improved
Of the 131 requirements, Capital Metro is in full compliance with 128 requirements. The agency is in partial compliance with three requirements and corrective actions have been taken to ensure full compliance in the future.
For buses, Capital Metro ridership rose 14.4 percent from 1997 to 2001, the agency’s planners said earlier this year.
Capital Metro drew praise in the audit for keeping better records and making them more available than in the past; lowering its per-passenger costs by 13.7 percent; and allocating millions of dollars of its sales tax revenue to regional road projects.
