By: Diane Benjamin
Connect transit is tired of people noticing the empty or close to empty buses roaming Bloomington-Normal so they fixed the problem. Check out of the new electric buses.
h/t a reader
They’ve gone from darkened windows to covering them completely. We still know the bus is mostly empty.
CT didn’t have a Regular Board meeting in August, just a workshop pertaining to fares. The next meeting will be September 26th. Maybe they will have determined how many millions of dollars this farce cost taxpayers last year.
PDF page 13: https://www.connect-transit.com/file/679/FINAL%20BUDGET%20DOCUMENT%20-%20FY%202023.pdf
Look at the LOSS growth in 3 years!
PDF page 13 again: https://www.connect-transit.com/file/1659/BUDGET%20DOCUMENT%20-%20FY%202024-%20Final.pdf
This fiscal year CT added over $1 million more to the loss – these numbers do not include the new electric buses bought from Proterra that declared bankruptcy. It looks like nobody noticed the FY 2022 numbers are actually FE 2021. It does make clear however that losses were projected to increase more than $6 million in 4 short years. As reported in July, ridership hasn’t returned to pre-pandemic levels: https://blnnews.com/2023/07/28/get-the-connect-transit-party-started/
This taxpayer abuse by morons who think you need to ride the bus is happening across the country with similar results. See this Letter to the Editor about the Champaign-Urbana system, it should sound familiar: https://www.news-gazette.com/opinion/letters-editor/letter-to-the-editor-mtd-no-blessing-for-community/article_71d5f53b-3094-5def-bd34-1ea333758309.html
Apparently, city subsidized busses are not used for transportation in Midwest college towns.
No one is interested in riding the busses, even though students in both towns are required to pay bus fees as part of their student fees (IMO…requiring students to pay for bus passes sounds like theft!)
Wow! No safety for the drivers or passengers. What goes on in the bus, stays in the bus. No one needs to know. Plus the drivers view will be inhibited. Another great idea brought to you by the people that know better than you that you the taxpayer is paying for.
How will Protterra procide the busses?
The bus system in Champaign/Urbana is a separate taxing body. The decorative wraps, which are not inexpensive, should be used as a method of collecting revenue from corporate advertising. Instead, CT buses are wrapped with City of Bloomington, Town of Normal, ISU, Bloomington Public Library, and Miller Park Zoo.
I hope the workshop regarding fees does not overturn the the “Fair Fare” that was approved in January 2020. If so, there will be another uproar.
Video is probably on line, if you can understand it.
Surprised they don’t have cardboard cut outs positioned in the isles or windows to make it look like people are in there.
You think disconnect has a problem with expenses just wait until they have to find parts for the electric busses. You want sticker shock!
They may have darkened the windows but the ledger will tell the tale!
Darkening the bus windows will allow the drug dealers to work in private and the homeless to get uninterrupted sleep.
Shows you the $ value of virtue signaling. The huge cost of a massive bus to shuttle a couple of passengers is offset by the warm and fuzzy of thinking you’re saving the planet. A June Bug has more sense.