By: Diane Benjamin
Alderman Donna Boelen mentioned at the Council meeting last night Connect Transit hasn’t presented their budget to the City as required by the Inter-Governmental agreement. They never do. The budget includes $800,000 more for them anyway. It was reduced last year when CT said they didn’t need the money. Now it’s back.
Tonight’s packet: https://connect-transit.com/file/2218/02%2027%202024_BoT%20Meeting%20Packet_Final.pdf
Celebrate! Connect only lost $1,205,196 in January. PDF page 8.
This is a problem: PDF page 9
General Manager David Braun wants fewer people riding Mobility because every trip is more expensive.
Every Fixed route trip has a $5.58 subsidy, Mobility has $28.69. “Flex” was $14.20. Flex is where a van comes to your house and takes you to a bus stop or transfer point. How can ridership be down when Flex picked people up and took them to a bus? 🤔
See PDF page 11. The White House is holding a roundtable on 2/29 “focused on ensuring adequate U.S. manufacturing capacity to build clean transit buses at the scale and pace needed to meet market demand and achieve national climate and equity goals.”
Same page – the Federal Transit Administration has $1.5 billion to hand out to modernize aging fleets. Thank the Infrastructure Bill.
Meanwhile, Proterra buses will nickel and dime CT for the foreseeable future. The electric fleet is only 2 years old or less. PDF page 5
Laugh of the day: This document is linked on PDF page 12: https://driveelectric.gov/files/esb-cold-weather-help-sheet.pdf
Cold Weather Impacts on Electric School Buses
Quotes:
Electric buses operate at peak performance in ideal weather conditions—between 55°F and 60°F air temperature.
A 2022 study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that electric transit bus range decreased by 33% when air temperature was 25°F, a 30-degree decrease from its ideal conditions of 55°F–60°F.
Store electric school buses indoors overnight.
PDF page 13-23 recap what bills are in Springfield. They prove you are ruled, not governed. This update is also included:
Connect Transit was awarded money for new Mobility buses. PDF page 23. They can’t be silly enough to buy electric – can they?
Comparing Connect Transit and Rivian: Both have been influenced by the democrat’s Green New Deal, with significant funding invested in them, perhaps beyond what is considered prudent. However, the key difference lies in how failure is managed. In the case of Rivian, a free market allows for the natural cleansing of failure and decay. Through no fault of their own Rivian’s business plan was based on the ever shifting sand of the left’s environmental ideology.
On the other hand, Connect Transit faces a similar issue with a shifting ideological foundation. However, the crucial distinction is that Connect Transit’s funding comes from taxpayers, which allows the organization to continue operating despite its flaws.
So just like a parasite, Connect Transit will never be satisfied with the amount of blood it sucks out of its ever weaker and paler hosts.
Board members who care will never be appointed
I noticed at the board meetings that most look like they’re just there for donuts.
Same goes for the solar panel propaganda