By: Diane Benjamin
The August Connect Transit report has been posted. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4zAZemF_qQuOUc3ckRxVGZfUWM/view
Celebrate now – Connect Transit had a company picnic – and it only cost you:
See PDF page 2:
Last August Connect had 216,299 riders.
This August Connect has 175,700 riders.
Last August an average of 28.8 people per hour boarded a bus. (Yes, that’s the total for EVERY bus)
This August an average of 20.0 people per hour boarded a bus.
Things are really looking up now that people who can barely walk have to travel long distances to a bus stop – only to get dropped off across a busy street from their destination.
More Government working for you!
See page 8 for the August loss:
Send US Congressman Darin Lahood a thank-you card for the fleecing. https://blnnews.com/2016/08/23/progressives-connect-transitlahood/
Next thank Bloomington and Normal for getting on board with funding picnics, consultants, and the bureaucrats totally unresponsive to riders and the citizens paying the bills.
.
.
.
Last time I checked company outings and picnics get put on the back burner when profit is down (and a deficit is in play). At least that’s how businesses operate.
First, they would have to be a company.
Sounds like you are just butt-hurt you didn’t get invited to a picnic. So what if a company gives back to their employees with a picnic once in a while? You act like they all got brand new cars instead of hotdogs. Aren’t there more important things to worry about than a company hosting an employee picnic?
Companies are in business to MAKE money, obviously Connect Transit isn’t a company!
You’re one of those special kind of stupid idiot’s, right?
I really don’t have a problem with an employee picnic. What I have a problem with is this entity running these huge buses that are expensive to buy, maintain, fuel, etc. It is if they are in the business to burn taxpayer money and keep the bus manufacturers in business. I wonder many layers of management are present and what are they being paid plus benefits. I see a need for public transportation but not at this expense but it goes on here as well as in other cities.
AND WE WONDER WHY OUR STATE IS BROKE!!!!!! WOW!!!!!
IT’S O.K. THOUGH – IT’S THE GOVERNMENT’S MONEY!!!! OH WAIT A MINUTE – WE ARE SUPPOSED TO PAY THESE BILLS?????? IS IT JUST ME OR ARE THESE PEOPLE IN CHARGE SMOKING SOMETHING??? I LIKE HELPING PEOPLE THAT ARE REALLY IN NEED, BUT THIS IS NUTS!!!
I WANT TO OPT OUT!!!!
Maybe some day that opt out option will be real.
Someone replied to a posting I made the night of the POTUS elect debate with this link.
An interesting piece about those who want to take from you and redistribute it for you.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/04/14/progressive-keynesian-myths-debunked-the-coming-redistribution-of-political-and-economic-power-among-the-states/#21eee55f43c9
Hopefully people are sick of redistribution, not sure who is going to stop it though.
This Forbes article paragraph sums it up pretty good.
The only reason that Keynesian economics has survived for so long in western thinking is not because it works, or even makes any sense, but because it justifies what liberal politicians already want to do – spend with reckless abandon, run bigger and bigger deficits so they don’t have to explicitly pay for it with higher taxes today, and run up the national debt, which will be someone else’s problem later. The truth is, as Fruits and Pozdena explain, “A large and long-standing body of literature finds that increased or higher government spending tends to reduce economic growth rather than increase it.”
I’d like to call them names, but I will refrain. Unintelligent will do.
It’s utterly shocking to me that the amount of money they lost was almost equal to the subsidies they received. Just kidding. I’m not surprised at all. If their subsidies were cut they would find ways to save money. Maybe not having ridiculously oversized busses would be a start.
Do you guys realize NOBODY would know these facts if I hadn’t looked at their website! I’m appalled at the media that never looked, asked, or reported! What else haven’t I gotten to yet?
One thing I see different than what my parents saw in their work lifetime is that they weren’t being taxed to death so to speak. I cannot believe what percentage of my earnings go to the government.
I was in Schnucks last week and picked up a Caesar salad pre-made in the deli. It was something like $6.xx and when I paid for it it was almost a dollar more. I wish had kept the receipt to give the exact amounts. When I looked almost $1 was added on for taxes. I see this tax named TX-PFD and say to myself what is that. A google search turns up a Bloomington tax called “Prepared Food and Beverage Tax”.
The truth is our government is taxing us to death with about every conceivable means to get their hands on our money. If you have a land line phone and when you see a page half full of various taxes what does that tell you. Holy cow it’s getting about the same with a grocery receipt, TAX-HI, TAX-LO, TAX-PFD….. They nickel and dime us to take it and then redistribute it.
I’m not sure who can put a stop to this. I know the Koch brothers are big proponents of controlling the federal government by the states. That’s why they have been pushing for more Republican control of the states. I know a lot of people don’t like them but if you read more about what they are striving for it makes sense.
They fund Americans For Prosperity who sponsored last weeks watchdog training. 😎
For every one thing the Koch brothers do that looks good, certainly there are 10 things that stink like hell. The Koch brothers do not deserve any of our love. They are a big part of the establishment and whatever makes them richer than their wildest dreams is more important than any of us little people.
I hear their employees are happy. It’s called capitalism.
Heading to work this morning, I saw the “Red” bus coming from around OSF hospital. Zero people riding the bus this morning at 7 AM, which would appear to be a “prime time” for people to get to work. It still appears cheaper to provide people with Uber/Lyft credits for some routes. I can understand some busses around campus are used more frequently when classes are in session, but why not get smaller shuttle busses to run around town? Wouldn’t that save a lot of money?
It would be a lot easier to fix more streets – help fund that $8 million dollar a year request they asked for – if they weren’t subsidizing over $500k per year.
Common sense and government have very little in common.
The street repair needs are closer to $80M per year to get the streets to a condition of “fair.” Last year the city issued a bond for $10M for street resurfacing. There is little evidence of improvement because that commitment to street repair is completely insufficient.
Maybe if a Connect Transit Bus fell into a sink hole created be decaying sewers, the City would make repairs a priority.
A while back, an emergency vehicle did get stuck in collapsed sewer sink hole. Did anyone in council or the mayor move forward? No! They were too busy with the hotel proposal.
The Left’s fanatic hatred for the liberty that cars (private transportation) allow will always, ALWAYS cause them to blindly support “public transportation”or “mass transit”. It doesn’t matter one bit how corrupt or outrageously expensive those systems are. That is just the way it is. It is the price we pay for living in an increasingly Socialistic country dominated by a welfare state mentality.
I don’t think CT actually counts rider but rather boardings. Assuming riders make round trips, the reported number of riders would be at least half–not figuring in transfers.