http://portlandtransport.com/archives/2011/06/cascade_policy.htm

It was only last fall that we were treated to the spectacle of ATU 757 members cheering on John Charles after a rousing anti-MAX speech before the TriMet board, in which he gleefully promoted the theory that MAX epansion was a grave threat to bus operations.
~~~>They were cheering that specific idea, not the man, and certainly not the organization.
(Any enemy of my enemy is a friend of mine)
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As for the ATU, TriMet management promised a $ billion in benefits they have no money for. Is that good for the union? Good for transit? Good for bus riders?
~~~>The specific problem here is the health insurance industry and our corporate governments refusal to institute either a single payer or strictly regulated insurance industry
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All of which is made worse by the conspiring to prevent public votes on these costly projects the public would never approve of.
~~~>There is a kernel of truth in that statement.
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What public votes were "prevented"?
~~>Actually the yellow line was defeated at the polls but they built it anyway. I don't remember anybody asking me about the green line or the WES, in other words the public gets no say.
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I take issue with the statement that TriMet is the "worst managed" transit system in the country or that the financial problems are not a product of the economy.
~~~>Obviously Trimet is hardly the "worst" and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand if the payroll tax depends on people being employed, and there are less people employed, then there would be less money available to Trimet.
But Trimet's insistence on this never ending growth cycle has played a large role in creating this huge hole (supposedly). You can't add service without increasing your payroll, and increasing the payroll means more expenditures, duh!
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How much of that is fuel costs,
~~~~>Don't forget the boneheaded move which locked Trimet into higher gas prices for the term of that contract. Cost the agency millions.
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McFarlane's answer is akin to saying "move along, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." TM bureaucrats live in a totally fake world where they can say anything they want and get away with it.
~~~>Uh, me thinks he has hit the nail squarely on the head!
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The Green Line never made any sense, and was a total waste of money.
~~~>Gotta agree again, putting in that rail line to the Clackamas shopping center really was NOT a necessary addition to the Trimet system, anymore than that joke train to Wilsonville was. Now all the rest of the riders of Trimet are stuck paying for all the dung for who knows how long!
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I'm no fan of John Charles, but I am also not so stupid as to take every single point he says and dismiss it just because it came from him.
I think the "think tanks" are pursuing an agenda that has as its particular focus transit bashing.
I see plenty wrong at Trimet, lots of things should be changed, there is no doubt about that.
The first thing this place has to do is stop adding to a system that they cannot support in its current form!
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