Buses World News

28.2.11

COMPLAINS * Canada - Olympic buses and local transit

Thanks to a fleet of buses we don't need, part of the Games cost is being dumped on transit users and property owners in Greater Victoria. That's just not right...

Victoria,BC,USA -The Victoria Times Colonist -February 22, 2011: -- Greater Victoria's transit system has plenty of problems, with most involving a lack of money. With more money, B.C. Transit could add routes, increase service and convince more people that it's worthwhile to use the bus... Saanich Mayor Frank Leonard, who sits on the Victoria Regional Transit Commission, says the local system has been required to take 100 buses that were bought for the (Winter) Games, along with the debt from their purchase. At $500,000 a bus, local transit users are looking at $50 million in additional assets... The local transit system, facing a deficit this year approaching $6 million, is considering service cuts and a $28.50 property tax levy to help cover its costs... It's destructive. We ended up with buses we don't need, and to pay the bills we might have to cut service, which means more buses will be parked in a storage lot... If the costs of staging the Olympics can be hidden in bizarre spots -like bus service here -we will never get a true accounting of what we paid. And that's a shame... (Picture from 2.bp.blogspot: BRT Victoria's bus)

Labels: citizens complains

10.7.08

Soaring fuel prices * India - Manmohan, Chidambaram sit on their hands

Chennai,India -The Straphangers United, By Ananthakrishnan G. -5 July 2008: -- The Manmohan Singh-led UPA Government, which is running a fever over the Indo-US Nuclear Deal, has done precious little on one of the growing areas of energy demand — transport... The national discussion has tilted completely towards this deal and its political fallout, ignoring the plight of the common man as his life is torn apart by inflation... The inaction and ineptitude of our trained economists in the seat of Government is pushing up global oil prices, and at last count, it had touched 146 dollars a barrel. We saw the somewhat unusual spectacle of a market-oriented Finance Minister, Mr. P.Chidambaram, pleading with oil producers for voluntary price controls on a commodity that, going by raw market economics, will continue to command higher prices as supply diminishes and demand shoots up... Not much imagination is required to see that the myopic policy on transport of both the UPA government and the state governments including the DMK in Tamil Nadu is hurting prospects of continued high growth and reduced inflation... (Photo: Volvo services in Bangalore and Chennai are few, and carry a handful of passengers because tickets are outrageously priced)

Labels: citizens complains