TRANSIT BRIEFING : $11 Billion in Federal Aid Being Sought for Mass Transportation

As car-crazed Southern Californians turned out in surprising numbers this week to launch their light rail Blue Line, a new transit lobby was hard at work here trying to vastly increase funding for the nation’s mass transit systems.

For millions of Americans, bus lines, commuter rail lines, trolleys and, in several areas, elevated trains and subways have long worked in concert and independently, linking cities and suburbs.

FUNDS SOUGHT: America’s Coalition for Transit Now, an umbrella group of about 50 organizations and corporations, hopes to pressure Congress into approving a nearly fourfold increase to $11 billion in federal spending for mass transit programs during next year’s reauthorization of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act.

Under existing programs, the Urban Mass Transit Authority, which operates under the Department of Transportation, administers about $3.2 billion annually for mass transit needs across the nation (working from this capital city, which has a modern and efficient subway system). The nearly fourfold increase sought by the coalition appears extremely ambitious given the soaring federal deficit and the prospect of significant budget cuts.

Bruce Fried, executive director of Transit Now, said the coalition arrived at its $11-billion target by figuring that it would take an additional $3.5 billion to restore inflation-adjusted funding for mass transit to the 1980 level, $1.5 billion to bring the mass transit industry into compliance with new statutory regulations and about $3 billion more to correct the unattended problems associated with mass transit over the last decade.

In Los Angeles, where some residents remember the Big Red Car trolley that stopped running in the area three decades ago, the 22-mile, $871-million Blue Line links downtown with Long Beach at $1.10 a ride. It’s the first leg in an ambitious $5-billion, 150-mile rail system that will include the 17-mile Metro Rail subway from Union Station to the San Fernando Valley.

MASSIVE SYSTEM: New York remains mass transit’s king of the hill, with a subway system that traverses four boroughs, both underground and on elevated tracks, and carries 3.7 million fares a day at $1.15 each. There are 6,200 subway cars, 468 subway or elevated stations and 720 miles of tracks. The trains have an on-time rate of 87%, according to the City Transit Authority. The borough of Staten Island is not linked by subway but is served by a public ferry--50 cents a round trip--and private ferries.

In addition, New York has 3,800 public buses that also charge $1.15. (Los Angeles has 2,700, and the basic fare is $1.10 for one zone.) Various rail lines haul commuters from suburban points, like Long Island, Connecticut and New Jersey, into New York City. The busiest of these lines is the Long Island Railroad, which delivers 110,000 commuters to Pennsylvania Station every working morning from as far as 120 miles away and claims an on-time record of 90.6%. Fares range from $4.25 to $14, depending on distance traveled, and monthly discount tickets are available.

FARES VARY: Some of the nation’s transit systems have flat fares, and others tie their charges to distances traveled. One of the more unusual fare variations is found in the state of Washington, where the Seattle metropolitan area fronts Puget Sound and a ferry system carries 20 million passengers a year. Ferry fares vary dramatically, from $1.10 to $31.25.

The trip from Anacondas, Wash., to Sidney in British Columbia is $31.25 for an auto and rider (35 nautical miles).

But, if you’re touring Atlanta, it costs only 85 cents to ride the spanking new 1840s-style red trolley buses that ply bustling Peachtree Street.

Another relative newcomer to the transit scene is Miami’s Peoplemover, an elevated light rail system that has operated since 1986. Conversely, in Boston, the almost ancient Green Line subway rolls over rails that were first laid in 1897.

But no bus system features a better deal than Portland’s City Center lines. They cover 300 square blocks. And they’re free.

Contributing to this story were researchers Lisa Phillips in New York, Edith Stanley in Atlanta, Lianne Hart in Houston, Tracy Shryer in Chicago, Ann Rovin in Denver, Anna Virtue in Miami and Doug Conner in Los Angeles.