What are they doing!!!???

So you need money RT? Our states budget woes are hitting them hard, but seriously they need to use common sense.

Currently it's the time of year where all the businesses have pretty much paid their bills, and wont do again until the next fiscal year. So I've only been working Fridays at the state, and oh boy have I ever been so close to driving to work than ever. I have complained again and again how RT seems to think rush hour on the blue line goes from 1:30-5:00pm (because thats when the 4 car trains are out). I even sent them an email directly once, and got no response. I have seen the number of cars in the Florin parking lot dwindle, and the suits and ties after 5:30pm vanish. Even the Meadowview station doesn't fill up anymore. I used to hit the transfer station at 6:15pm going home from school, and what a nightmare it was. Sometimes the gold line train before was late, leaving two loads of transfering people waiting to get on half a train. A few times I was left at the station waiting for the next train, hoping it would have room, glad I didn't pay for this "service". If you are wondering why I haven't posted much, this is why. After two fights almost broke out on my way home once because the train was so crowded, I gave up and started driving to school again.

Anyways back to my story. Two weeks ago I got off at 5:30pm and went to the 12th & I station to go home. For some reason there were only two cars, and I had to stand. And this is only the first stop downtown. (second if you count alkalai flat). I figured RT decided that they needed to cut trains even EARLIER than they have been. (The train that arrives at 16th at 6:15 leaves 12th and I at 5:45). Whatever, I thought, I'll just leave at 5pm instead of 5:30pm next week. And that is what I did. Guess what: IT DIDNT MATTER. Yup, it was 5pm right in the middle of rush hour, and they had already cut the Meadowview line to 2 cars. The first stop downtown, and it already looked like the Folsom line leaving 16th Street. I REALLY felt like saying screw this, and calling someone to come get me, because this was not going to be good. So stop by stop, I watched everyones jaw drop as the train pulled up, and the people who were standing where the back 2 cars SHOULD HAVE BEEN run frantically to get on. When I said this wasn't going to be good, I wasn't kidding. Comments about how nice the weather is were replaced by grumblings ranging from "I want a refund" to "Gotta love Retarted Transit". When we came to the Archives Plaza stop the nightmare came to its climax: THE TRAIN WAS 100% COMPLETELY AND POSITIVELY MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT FULL AS IN YOU ARE NOT GETTING ON MISTER GET OUT OF THE DOORWAY. The Retarted Transit comment wasn't funny anymore, and people were wondering why after their rates were raised, RT couldn't even provide the bare minimum service. So RT is looking pretty dumb, right? I mean we haven't even hit the transfer station yet, and you can't even fit another 2 year old on the train. As we left Archives Plaza, an inbound 4 car gold train passed us. So people were HOT, and I'm just praying that someone doesn't do something stupid and start a fight. When we got to 13th Street, the real retartedness set in. We pulled in, to watch 2 cars pull out of the yard and click on to the back of us. I swear about 15 people must have screamed WHAT THE $#@!. So they cut the 2 cars, just to add them back when everyone had already crammed into the front 2 cars? LOL WAY TO GO Retarted Transit. I pushed my way off and got on one of these bonus cars, but not many followed. I should have stayed on to hear what other names they had come up for RT.

To sum it up, I don't get it. They want you to ride light rail, but won't make sure there's room for you. They want you to shop downtown after work, but make everyone rush out of work so they don't get stuck on that first 2 car train of the night. Not only are they ticking off their current riders, those people are going home and back to work telling everyone how much their ride home has sucked. People who hear this and things like "I used to ride the light rail" are NOT going to be inclined to start riding. There is also a serious inequality between the two lines as far as the 4 car trains go. I can leave downtown to meadowview at 5:30 in a 2 car train, but I can also come INTO downtown 3 hours later from the gold line on a 4 car train. I have a few posts that are not directly related to RT to be posted soon while I'm at it, but after that I don't see many updates on the horizon to be honest. Ever since the governor's first budget cut, the scheduling on the light rail has been half past retarted, and inching up on stupidity.

RT's service doesn't ALWAYS blow dolphins for nickels

It was about 3PM, my amtrak train had just arrived dowtown from Davis. It was my day off and man did I want to go home! After I got off the train, I saw the light rail train sitting at the station. I tried as hard as I could, but every time I tried to get around someone, somehow some old lady, or someone walking their bike got in my way.

After I got out of the crowd, I walked up to the train and pushed the button to open the doors. Nothing. I walked to another door. Nothing. The train pulled up about 2 feet, getting ready to leave the station. The same thing happened the day before, only there were about 5 of us trying to get on, and after pulling forward the driver opened the doors for us. I pushed again. Nothing. It looked like this driver was intent on leaving me at the station. Then the announcement you don't want to hear while standing on the outside of the train: "Please stand clear, train is departing." After pounding my fist into the door (which still didn't open the doors...), I sucked it up and walked to the K street stop, where I boarded the meadowview train. Yeah I'm lazy, taking the train for two stops, but if you had to walk the mile+ back and forth to school, you'd do the same.

Fast forward a week later, and it's a whole different story. I planned to take the bus and leave my truck at home, since I didn't have to work before or after school. I hate taking the #2 bus, because it's a very sketchy route. One day it will leave early, the next day 10 minutes late. Well I left my house just a couple of minutes late, but I figured the bus would be late so I figured I would still make it. Nooooot quite. As I approached the main street from my street, I saw the bus coming. I was still about 2-3 blocks away from the stop. I figured, what the hell I have nothing to lose, and flagged down the bus, hoping it would stop. It did. Even though I had a student pass, I almost (almost...) wanted to pay the darned fare, since this guy saved me a stressful catch up drive to the light rail station.

This reminded me of the time my light rail train went backwards and was over 20 minutes late by the time it got to the 65th street stop. Several buses had left the platform, but stopped in the middle of the street (one was actually stopped at a red light at an intersection) to let the passengers from the late train board. Now that's service. It's little things like that that can make people forget about the ride of horror that led up to that point. Not to mention 20-30 people cussing off at buses as they pulled away isn't exactly good PR, although RT often gives off the impression that they don't really care. Well it seems that at least a few of their drivers do.

The end of this blog...?

I recently read the proposed cutbacks RT is facing. It's not looking good.

2. Reduce Service Frequency: Bus – Reduce bus service frequency during peak hours so that no service operates more frequently than every 30 minutes ($4 million savings) or reduce bus service frequency during off-peak hours so that no route operates more frequently than every 60 minutes ($1 million savings). Light Rail – Reduce light rail service frequency to every 30 minutes all day ($4.1 million savings) or to every 30 minutes during off-peak hours ($2.05 million savings).

3. Reduce Service Day: Bus – Reduce the hours of bus service from approximately 5 a.m. until 11:30 p.m. to operate from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. ($2 million savings). Light Rail – Reduce the hours of light rail service from approximately 4 a.m. until 1 a.m. to operate from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. ($0.43 million savings).

4. Reduce Weekend Service: Bus – Discontinue all weekend bus service ($5.9 million) or discontinue Sunday/Holiday bus service ($2.5 million savings). Individual bus routes could be discontinued based on productivity – less than 10 passengers per trip ($0.8 million savings). Light Rail – Discontinue all weekend light rail service ($1.5 million savings) or discontinue Sunday/Holiday light rail service ($0.25 million savings).


First, I can't imagine the crowds that would be on the light rail if they ran at 30 minute intervals all day. Second, Im supposed to find a way to go from home to work to school, and back again using 30 minute intervals. God forbid I miss the train. This is what currently prohibits me from using the bus more than I do.

Only service until 8pm? Well that cuts 2/4 days out for me right there, since my classes will get out at night.

Weekend service wont affect me, however, if all these cuts make it through, light rail service will go from a bustling commuter line to something almost non-existant.

All I can say is
BOOOO

[STUB] - The final bubble?

Ill have to finish this post when i get home, but for now here is any interesting article i found on the canadian business magazine website

The final bubble? Jeff SanfordCanadian Business Online, What a fascinating event the Saudis hosted in Jeddah this past June. Here was the king of the world’s largest exporter of the world’s most important commodity, summoning world leaders for a talk about what to do about high gas prices that are affecting the daily lives of global citizens.  Considering the importance of non-renewable fossil fuel sources of energy to our economy — coal, oil and natural gas account for over 80% of total energy use, oil for 40% of the overall total — the fact the King of Saudi Arabia felt the need to hold a global pow-wow on oil has to be considered to be of historical importance. We are, after all, at a historic time in terms of our global financial and energy systems. For a generation now, the United States has enjoyed a position as nation No. 1 on the world stage and global policeman. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. currency became the de-facto global currency — and has been currency of choice for oil markets for longer than that — and demand for U.S. dollars helped prop up the wealth of Americans who enjoyed an economic golden age from the early ’80s through the last peak of the Dow above 14,000 in Oct. 2007

A strong U.S. dollar has been key for America as it has helped fund its consumption through those years. But the country has been in decline in terms of domestically produced oil since 1971 and that has seen it increasingly reliant on foreign oil. Today, the U.S. is the world’s single largest consumer of oil and buys up a quarter of the world’s oil produced daily as, more than any other country, it funds its car-centric suburban living pattern with imports. The consequence, of course, is that billions of dollars flow out of the U.S. each day, enriching the sovereign wealth funds of the oil-producing countries and increasing the gap in America’s current account deficit, while raising questions about how long the country can continue to fund the gap. How long will the U.S. continue to fund its current consumption level? It’s a good question. To this point western consumption has been aided by a massive post-war expansion of credit. Over the last 25 years, especially, we have realized a sort of financial services deregulation that led to a boom in lending as rules on everything from the amount of stocks that could be bought on margin to the amount of money that could be moved cross-border were changed. One estimate is that the total number of claims on future GDP — a technical definition of debt — has increased seven times in the post-war era. And this helped fund the consumption, as well as the many asset booms we’ve seen in that time. But with oil running into triple digits, the ability to keep that debt turning over is increasingly coming into question. As consumer spending shrinks as a result of higher energy prices, the outlook on all that consumer debt marbled through the economy shrinks as well. To this point, western banks and governments continue to debate how much of the debt stuffed into CDOs and held in all those off-balance sheet special investment vehicles will be valued, and who will end up holding it. (In Canada banks have been allowed to trade in dodgy securities for fresh new money.) But this is cheating to the rest of the non-western world. It’s basically reneging on our debt. And that’s not gone unnoticed — Russian president Dmitry Medvedev recently publicly questioned the soundness of the western financial system and called for a new order in global banking. Meanwhile, countries around the world that have a currency system pegged to the U.S. dollar are thinking about removing that peg. Throw in the fact that the International Energy Agency recently suggested oil supply could stay tight for the next five years, which means oil could stay high, and the soundness of the American dollar system is suddenly in doubt. In fact, according to some we’re moving into the end of post-war U.S. dollar hegemony, and the “End of the U.S. Empire“ as an investment theme is rapidly gaining adherents. The thinking goes like this: After a generation with the U.S. as de-facto global currency there is a one-time rebalancing coming that will see the world move from a uni-polar U.S.-denominated world to a more multilateral one, and that could include a dollar crash. Depending how this plays out there could be a big effect in markets and investors will profit through the volatility or lose a good chunk of wealth.  Harry Dent, the demographics-based investment guru from the early ’90s, is these days a big believer in the End of the U.S. Empire. In the early ’90s he prophesied a coming boom in America as a result of the fact the boomers were moving into their peak spending years. The book went against mainstream opinion of the time, which largely thought America was headed for a cliff. But Harry Dent saw the boomers coming and said, no, we’re going to have the biggest boom the country has seen. And that’s what happened. The Dow hit record highs in both 2001 and again in 2007, as the boomers supported strong corporate earnings over the last two decades. Dent and I chatted the other day and he mentioned he is working on a new book that will lay out his new call on the decade ahead. Unlike his last couple of optimistic calls, this one is seriously pessimistic. According to him

My light rail train went backwards today

Evidence teeming: RT Light Rail system at limit

Before I get into my story, I'm going to cut straight to the chase on this one: RT's Light Rail system in its current state cannot support the number of new riders. OK so now I shall start my story. I got off the amtrak train from Davis, and boarded a four car light rail train at the Amtrak station. The driver seemed rushed, almost in a panic. We sat in the station for what seemed like eternity, for him to come back to the back car. He had forgot his clipboard. After a couple more minutes we were off. For some reason as we approached the 7th & I, the train changed from being a Sunrise Train to a Folsom train. I didn't notice until the people who were boarding started talking about how it must've changed because it was late. As we approached 8th & O, the driver announced "Please do not hold the doors for people, we are already 12 minutes late". Wow. The train started off 12 minutes late? Yikes. By now, I'm usually already off the train waiting for the Meadowview train. But today I needed to go to Sac State to get my new pass. I was pushing it as far as time goes, I had about 20 minutes to get there, and even on a good day that wasn't likely. Today was not a good day. We got to the 16th street station, and sat for another 2 or 3 minutes. I have no idea what was going on. An elderly man walked up to the rear car and pushed the button to open the doors. Nothing. for 30 seconds he pushed and pushed. Nothing. Finally the train started leaving. He held on to the button for as long as he could, with the most perplexed look on his face. "Why did they just leave me like that?", he probably thought. His arm finally dropped to his side as we went on our way. We almost went on our way. As the train approached the switch, we stopped. And waited. Again. For what? who knows. After another 2 or 3 minutes the driver walked in the back car, got in the drivers seat, and closed the door. "what now?" was the look on everyones face. The next thing we knew, we were pulling backwards into the station. Could anything else go wrong? The looks on the faces of the people at the station were priceless. As we came to a stop, the elderly man who was left behind quietly let out a laugh. Must be funny to see this train in such a hurry get 200 feet out of the station and pull back in. As the driver left, he mumbled "Let's try this again". Apparently something didn't do what it was supposed to. Maybe the switch didn't trigger? Who knows. We were so far behind, the next Sunrise train was right behind us. As we pulled out, the female voice announced "The next stop will be 7th & I County Center Station". Umm no.. the next stop was 23rd. The driver must've had to reset something on the train, as each announcement was off by 5 or so stops. On the way there a few passengers said that problems have been common during the fix I-5 project. One said they were on a Folsom train that was so late, they had to get off at Hazel and board the next one. Oh yeah, that happened to them twice in a week. This wasn't the only problem. The train was so full, that at each stop about 2/3 of the people didn't even bother boarding. I got off at 65th, well the lady thought it was 39th, whatever. Not 30 seconds after I got off the train did the crossing arms come down again, and another 30 seconds later a completely full Sunrise train came through. Enough riders to fill two 4 car trains only 3 minutes apart, now that actually impressive. Needless to say, I didn't get to the school in time. I headed back, and the 4:43 inbound train never showed up. A 2 car train came about 4:55, and was packed. Of course this meant we all missed the transfer to the Meadowview line. As we came to the station and watched our train depart without us, a few passengers said what they thought about RT. "It's all screwed up. They had a 2 car train packed like this earlier today!" Another said "I know, earlier there was a train that said training car - no passengers, but was full of people!". As we waited, there were so many people at the station that many were literally waiting on the tracks. We watched a Wat/I-80 train pass, followed by a 2 car "Out of Service" shadow train. What I didn't get is why they didn't just send it back our way immediately since our station was so overcrowded. The way they are deploying their shadow trains is so so inefficient. after 15 minutes, a packed 4 car Meadowview train finally came.

Not a good day for RT for sure. I have been riding home on the Blue Line just before rush hour recently, so I have not experienced these problems that are becoming commonplace as more and more people fill the trains. The Meadowview train I got on was a standing room only 4 car train, and during normal service it would have already been cut to 2. If transit funding does get cut like the Governor wants, the glory days of public transit will be short lived, and so so hard to revive.

Think putting transit in your commute is hard? Try doing mine for a day.

For me, my ride to work to school and work is a lot easier than driving. I can't say so much for my current commute.

I was supposed to have a nice and easy summer. I got a temporary job at the EPA for the summer, and I was supposed to work that and go to school after, while taking the summer off from my current job.

Things didn't pan out so well. A couple of weeks ago the EPA informed me that the project I had been hired to work on had been delayed. This meant that in the meantime there would be almost no work for me, but I had to put in at least some hours in order to keep the job. Well I work at night at my current job, so in order to make up the hours, I had to drop the night class I was going to take. The only other options were a class at sac state for over six hundred bucks, a 7am class at arc, or a 1230 class at the davis sac city center. Well neither option was ideal, but it seemed that the ladder was the most likely to work. so this is how my day goes:

Wake up at 6 thirty to drive to the station to catch the 722 train to work at 8am.
I then work until 945 to catch the 1015 amtrak into davis. The train gets in about 15 minutes later. I have about 2 hours before my class starts. I have this because the next train doesn't get in until 5 minutes before my class starts. Its not a big deal, get some food and stuff. Its also about a mile walk anyway. The class gets out at about 215. This is the fun part. The train is scheduled to leave at 223 (it usually leaves about 228 or so). This doesn't leave a whole lot of time! I then take the gold line 2 stops, transfer to the blue line at capitol, and get off where I got on. I drive the 3 blocks to work, where I stay until 12am, to do it all over the next day :)

Ok so after reading that, your first question is probably "why the hell don't you just drive?" Well first off, that bill would very well reach close to 4 digits a month. Second, car or train, the stuff I have crammed in is going to make for a hectic day either way. Then add traffic (the train goes faster than even the cars in the fast lane), parking and such, and I would just be introducing more problems.

Trust me, this all sounds a lot worse on paper than it actually is, although I haven't been this tired since back when I worked at costco pushing carts. The sad thing is, I'm doing all this and some people refuse to use transit because it adds twenty minutes to their schedule. To those I ask: 'how many hours a month are you working to fill up your tank?"

My answer: 8

And I'm in school barely making double digits an hour.

:)

Blackberry needs...

A built in blogger app.

Booyah


The opera mini browser works wonders, unless you want to do formatting or add labels to your post.

Google lets me find my way around town taking transit from my blackberry, but nothing for blogger. Camman!