Dear Editor,
I agree with John Murphy about the high cost of bus operations
by the Valley Transportation Authority. Supervisor Don Gage has
apparently thrown in the towel on county transportation costs and
has joined the status quo.
Dear Editor,
I agree with John Murphy about the high cost of bus operations by the Valley Transportation Authority. Supervisor Don Gage has apparently thrown in the towel on county transportation costs and has joined the status quo.
VTA Policy Advisory Committee member Greg Perry, a Mountain View City councilman, recently criticized the high of operation costs of the VTA the bus system. He claims that it costs VTA $134 to operate a bus for one hour, compared to the national medium of $58 and $73 for Contra Costa County. Even a more glaring difference is the $44.50 per hour cost for Laidlaw, a private company to operate buses.
Councilman Perry also revealed that waste and high operating cost of VTA buses is reflected by its declining efficiency. Ten years ago it took 2.34 employee hours to run a bus for one hour but it now takes 3.15 to run the same bus. VTA requires almost one administrative employee per bus, while the national medium is about one administrative per four buses.
The conclusion is that VTA costs are out of control and that drastic measures need to be taken. It is unbelievable that VTA would be seriously considering the multi-billion dollar cost to extend BART to San Jose at this time. VTA should think about contracting with private companies for many of its functions, starting with the bus system. This would be a good start to bringing their deficit under control and provide county residents with cost effective public transportation.
Warren Seifert, Gilroy
