» Funding Transit

Tracy Beidleman, our Director of Program Development and Grants, has received the first-ever Award of Excellence for Outstanding Customer Service and Financial Oversight of FTA Projects in St. Louis presented by Region VII of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA).  Go Tracy!

William Kalt, Team Leader for Operations and Program Management at FTA Region VII in Kansas City, said the high recognition for Beidleman was a special, perhaps even just a one-time award, presented to honor her extraordinary performance in complicated and demanding collaboration between Metro as a recipient of federal grants and the FTA as the agency that administers the grants. Kalt said FTA Regional Administrator Mokhtee Ahmad proposed the new award, which has never been presented to a transit-agency employee before.

“The award was presented to Tracy based on her dedication, her competence and her superior ability to communicate with FTA,” Kalt said. “She is truly deserving, given her great attention to detail, her incredible responsiveness to our many needs, and her extremely complete knowledge of all FTA requirements and all Metro projects.”

Kalt said the FTA and Metro must have a close working relationship because Metro is the largest transit agency with the most grants in Region VII. He said Region VII administrators have always joked that, if every agency had someone like Beidleman working for them, it would make FTA’s job so much easier that everyone there could work half-time.

“She is a valuable asset to Metro and to the FTA,” Kalt said. “She provides a real cost savings to Metro because she has the information to deal with the FTA. The FTA doesn’t need to conduct as many reviews at Metro because of her performance.”

Beidleman, of Florissant, has been at Metro for 11 years. She said she had not been told about the award before it was presented at a recent regional conference for FTA Region VII.  “I was quite surprised by it. It was quite an honor,” she said.

Thanks so much Tracy for all your hard work and dedication.  Congratulations!

Here’s the fun we can expect in fiscal year 2011, starting July 1, 2010!

Former Firefighting "Building" at St. Louis Downtown Airport in Cahokia. New one will be built with American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds.

The Metro Board of Commissioners today approved an operating budget of $232.4 million for Fiscal Year 2011 that includes funds to restore transit services that were cut in 2009. The budget includes freezes on salaries and hiring and reductions to expenditures across the board.  The funds from the Proposition A half-cent sales tax in St. Louis County will not begin to be collected until July 1 and will not reach Metro until late September, so the main priority for the Agency is providing the money and resources necessary for service restoration.

Highlights:

• Wage freezes for Metro employees
• Hiring freeze except for those deemed “mission critical”
• $17.6 million will restore services lost in 2009
• $5 million will replace lost sales-tax revenue (spending down overall in region)
• $12 million will replace the one-time emergency appropriation from state of Missouri
• $6 million for higher costs for fuel, medical costs and utilities
• $4.8 million to provide additional services under contract with St. Clair County Transit District

Capital projects scheduled for 2011, in addition to service restoration (including ARRA projects):

• Beginning the Eads Bridge rehabilitation
• Installing track crossovers at the east end of Eads Bridge and at University of Missouri St. Louis
• Completing repaving of the North Hanley Station
• Repairing erosion along the MetroLink track between Fairview Heights and Swansea in Illinois
• Beginning construction on the new Scott Transit Plaza at the Grand MetroLink Station
• Public arts projects
• Downtown Airport Firefighting Building and Equipment

Capital Projects FY2011 – FY2013

• Integrated Fare System Upgrade
• Radio Replacement
• Union Station Tunnel Rehabilitation (funding to support this project is planned beyond the current FY11 – FY13 capital budget period
• ADA enhancements
• Installation of between-car barriers and tactile warning strips at all MetroLink stations
• Installation of heaters at MetroLink stations,
• Upgrades to passenger shelters and signage

Interested in all the fun details…here you go!

St. Louis Metro Transit FY2011 Operating and Capital Budget Presentation

Photo via NyMag

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)of the New York City area approved a series of service cuts that will drastically change the levels of service available to customers.  The cuts, along with 700 job layoffs and the removal of the free ride for students program, were unamimously approved by the authority’s board to deal with a $400 million shortfall.  The deficit came after the state reduced transit funding, revenues from a payroll tax produced less than expected (enacted to avoid cuts last year), and a court ruled that the authority must give raises to its unionized workers.

New York State finds itself with a $6.8 billion deficit, and cuts in state funding will become a pattern for New Yorkers.

Starting in the spring of next year, MTA will reduce bus and subway service during late nights, weekday afternoons and weekends.  Some bus lines and subways lines will be reduced or eliminated.  The free ride program for NYC students will be phased out.  Seven hundred workers will be laid off, management salaries reduced by 10 percent, and a fare increase is scheduled for 2011.

This is obviously serious business for New York, which has one of the most highly used transit systems in the country.  The very fabric of life is dependent of the flow of transportation (many people, little space = big need for smart transportation planning).  These cuts will especially effect those who work in off-peak shifts and students who use the system to access education throughout the area.  But it is a sad reflection of the budgetary crises transit agencies face across the country, including Metro.  Metro will face a budgetary deficit  for fiscal year 2010, and will also have to cut service and jobs without additional funding.

During the community workshops in November, the Metro long-term planning team went around the region and conducted community workshops to get a handle on what are St. Louisans’ priorities for transit spending, now and in the future.  People chose which corridors and modes they preferred, and which amenities were important to them.  Now, Metro’s Moving Transit Forward planning team is conducting another round of community workshops to present findings and solicit feedback and answer questions.  At these meetings, Ray Friem and Jessica Mefford-Miller also describe how the planning process works, and explain limitations and future opportunities.

So here is my breakdown of the workshop results:

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The Post-Dispatch’s Along For the Ride blog has a nice piece this morning about the Metro executive briefing of the St. Louis County Council yesterday. Although the information won’t be new to our blog readers, the post highlights how long it takes to build a light rail extension – from planning to opening day – and the steps in between.

One thing you may not know, however, is that Metro has to compete for federal funding whenever the region wants to make a large capital investment (like a light rail expansion). There are many other transit agencies out there with expansion plans. The federal government has preferences about what gets built – longer extensions rather than short connectors, for instance, or – these days – bus rapid transit corridors rather than light rail. In order to secure federal funding, Metro has to prove to the federal government that the project is a good idea. The feds also require a “local match” of some percentage of the funding; and proof that the investment can be operated once the federal capital dollars are gone. This second set of requirements, as the Post-Dispatch points out, is where the St. Louis region has historically struggled:

Friem said Metro faced challenges raising the money for pay for expanded service. Among them are the inability to raise local money to match federal funds and little state support of transit in Missouri, he said.

This year’s March service cuts were a direct result of lacking operating funding. All of the capital investment in the world – buying buses, building tracks – won’t improve the transit system if there isn’t funding to pay people to drive the buses, fix the tracks, change the tires, run the pay system that pays the drivers, etc. Metro executives are working with regional, state, and federal officials and other stakeholder groups to try to find a solution to this issue. As Mr. Baer says:

Baer said Metro had needs “that would never go away” and that it needs “a secure revenue stream” to deal with them. Having invested $1.8 billion in Metro, the public should not walk away from the system, he said.

CTA, the Chicago Transit Authority, may have to revoke its fare-free program for seniors to help alleviate the burden of a projected $300 million budget deficit. The program was introduced by former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who later extended the program to include low-income riders with disabilities, disabled veterans and military personnel.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the CTA figures free rides will cost the agency $60 million in 2010.  The current budget shortfall also led the Agency to propose fare hikes Monday that would increase the cost of an L ride to $3 from $2.25, and cut bus service by 18 percent and rail service by 9 percent.

Chicago, like St. Louis, is one of many cities across the nation facing budget deficits in light of the sagging economy (lost tax revenues) and falling real estate values.  In fact, the financial problems facing Metro are more commonplace than unique among our peer cities.  These budget problems persist despite the nationwide increase in overall transit ridership.  If the CTA gets rid of its program, it could be abolished statewide and affect Metro riders in Illinois who qualify for the free rides.

Was the program a good idea?  Should the elderly and people with disabilities have access to free transit rides? Should people with low-incomes have access to free or reduced-rate passes?  When does increasing the fare of a ride discourage ridership and negatively affect ridership?  Where do you think the balance lies?

Recession schmession!  The Wall Street Journal is already weighing in on its picks for the The Next Hot Youth-Magnet Cities.  Once the recession cools off, where are kids going to live?  What amenities, jobs and lifestyle choices are 20-somethings going to be looking for?  Washington, D.C. and Seattle claim the top spots for the trend towards government and tech-related jobs combined with strong cultural and active living attractions.  Also making the list are New York City, Portland, Austin, TX, San Jose, CA, Denver, Durham, NC, Dallas, Chicago and Boston.  And what do the majority of these cities have in common?  Strong mass transit systems.  In fact, shots of local transit is featured in for two of the cities (Portland and Denver) and featured in Portland’s description.  Today’s young professional tend to value active urban living that includes common spaces, public transit, access to outdoor activities and cultural centers, even in the face of high unemployment.

It has been my personal experience that young people tend to gravitate towards active lifestyles that include walking, biking and taking public transit, even in more auto-centric cities like St. Louis.  Do you agree with this assessment?  Do you think it will last?  What can St. Louis do to attract more young professionals in the coming decade?

As our readers are aware, Metro has been making many changes over the past two years under the leadership of our current President & CEO, Bob Baer. This blog has been one such change.

Now here comes a big change: Under Mr. Baer’s leadership and that of our new Chief of Planning and System Development, Jessica Mefford-Miller, and in cooperation with the region’s planning body, East-West Gateway Council of Governments, Metro is now working on the development of a long-range transit plan for the St. Louis metro region. The plan will consist of three parts:

• 5-year short-range plan;
• 10-year mid-range plan;
• And a 30-year long-range.

When completed, each stage of the plan will be prioritized and will detail funding levels not only to build but to operate  and maintain any enhancements and expansions to the current transit system. This planning process will be unlike anything that Metro has done before.  Over the past two months our market research team has been identifying an initial baseline “pulse” of what the region thinks about transit, the current transit system, and hopes for transit in the future. Now we’re moving into the community engagement phase of the plan development, and the crucial factor in this process is you. Read more about the planning process below the jump. (more…)

This article in The Nation examines the paradox of ARRA funding (federal stimulus funds), which basically provides money to transit systems for expansion but not for operating costs; and mentions St. Louis. It also discusses the rule change allowing some of the capital funds to be converted into operation funds, and looks at the issue of declining tax revenues which are used to fund transit in many areas. Just some interesting food for thought.

While we search far and wide for interesting links for this blog, sometimes the best can be found close to home. Check out this article in the St. Louis Beacon about everything we are doing to get ready for August 3 when we will be restoring part of the transit service cut last March. We continue to thank our funding partners at the Missouri and federal governmental levels for funding this temporary service restoration.