A few items of interest from around the ‘net but with all the bad news coming out of Washington, I figured some good news was in order.
- Colleges, Norfolk Southern paying lump sums for HRT rides. Free rides 🙂 As I’m officially a member of the ODU faculty as of this past Monday, I’m looking forward to flashing my ID card and riding – when I’m in the area, of course 😉
- Ralph Northam campaign kickoff with Sen. Warner is this Friday evening at the New Belmont from 5-7pm.
- Moss re-signs for three years with Redskins. The NFL is coming, the NFL is coming 🙂
- Fly like an eagle. Literally. The eaglets whose mother was killed by a plane are being released this morning at the Berkley Plantation. Sorry that they didn’t get a chance to grow up here in my backyard at their home in the Norfolk Botanical garden but I’m glad they made it.
What else is going on out there?
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
While the goals of the HRT initiative are laudable, the manner in which it’s being done is going to produce some significant impacts in the midterm:
1. We’ve had the $1.50 cash fare since the 1999 merger, and last year a $2 fare was considered. While the pending efficiencies report will help some, HRT still has some financial issues that make a fare increase unavoidable within the next couple years.
The hitch: Title VI protects disadvantaged groups from inequitable transit pricing practices. How is HRT going to justify a $2 fare for laborers making minimum wage or just above, when Norfolk Southern white collar help is riding for a pittance?
2. It’s not how many empty seats HRT has (an 80% is a gross overestimate), but where they are. (A nice chunk of them are in Suffolk.) When the efficiencies report milks most of them out in January, 2012, while thousands of new riders are coming on, HRT will face capacity issues that could force the need for additional frequencies – at an additional expense.
3. Implementing it without the users having readable cards will make guesswork for the Planning Department in trying to adjust service to meet the demands of the additional riders.
For the CPA, it will be similar to a budget with a number of defined line items, then a huge miscellaneous category with God knows what in it.
Good news from today’s TDCHR meeting: readable cards will be in use later this year, diminishing the impact of #3.