It has been a busy month. A compromise federal transportation funding reauthorization bill finally emerged from conference and should soon be signed by the President. Also a Bay Bridge funding deal was reached between the Governor and legislative leaders. One would almost be tempted to start singing "Everything's Coming Up Roses" except our recent campaign on behalf of the Spring Street contra-flow bus only lanes ended in failure, with the L.A. City Council adopting the recommendations of the L.A. Dept. of Transportation (LADOT). We are at work on some recommendations of our own we will shortly be submitting to LADOT in hopes of mitigating the adverse impact on transit users.

At our July 16 meeting we adopted a position that MTA after the recent closure of two Customer Centers explore replacement facilities plus expansion in areas that lack Centers. As a first step we submitted a letter of support for San Fernando Valley Service Sector Governance Council Vice Chair Kymberleigh Richards' motion to have MTA staff report on the feasibility of having the renovated Lankershim Depot (at the terminus of the Orange Line across the street from the North Hollywood Red Line station) include a Customer center. The text of the letter is posted on the front page of our website: http://www.socata.net. Amazing fact: Foothill Transit now has more Customer Centers than MTA!

Richard Harris in his letter "Take the A Train" in the Aug. 4 CityBeat does a far better job than I could responding to the railbashing comments so-called Urbanist Joel Kotkin made in the July 21 edition. legislative recommendations mitigating replacement Service terminus station) Here is an excerpt: "It's been obvious for a while that Joel Kotkin is an ass, and his comments on light rail serve to firmly establish his asininity [3rd Degree, July 21]. 'I think the light-rail is proving not to really have the ridership. It really is not appropriate to this area.' ... 35,000,000 riders annually on the Red Line. 22,000,000 riders annually on the Blue Line. The Blue Line is the second-busiest light rail line in the country. This is 'proving [to] not really have the ridership?' As has been proven as it's expanded -- the farther it goes, the more the rail system is used."

Another sign MTA's financial troubles are real can be found in these comments by ASI Director of Finance and Administration Jacqueline Horak in the May 2005 Financial Report Recap in the July 6 Board Box (item #5): "In the past, at the beginning of each fiscal year, LACMTA provided a significant portion of the annual Proposition C funds allocated to ASI for that year so that ASI would have sufficient funds available to pay its expenses until the federal grant money became available. Due to current financial constraints, LACMTA can no longer do so." [ASI is now bridging its budget gap by carrying over from the prior fiscal year unexpended funds].

Frank Gruber, who writes the "What I Say" column for the on-line LookOut notes the remarks of newly elected Los Angeles City Council Member Bill Rosendahl in making a courtesy call on the Santa Monica City Council "Shook everyone up when he said that he would "vet" three routes for the Exposition light rail line west of Culver City including one route -- down Venice Boulevard -- that wouldn't terminate in Santa Monica. He wondered whether the line would serve enough people if it ran through Santa Monica's light industrial area instead of, say, to Venice. He floated a whole new idea of running a connecting line on Lincoln Boulevard from Santa Monica to a new Green Line terminus at LAX." One insider noted to me that while Rosendahl's comments on Venice Blvd. took everyone aback, the Lincoln Blvd. alignment shouldn't have as Villaraigosa spoke of it a lot in his campaign, and a multi-community task force proposed it a couple of years ago. Also, I am told Rosendahl's staff indicates the councilman continues to support both accelerating Expo to Santa Monica and studying rail to serve other Westside areas. Despite the reassurances above, one can understand why Gruber concluded "Yikes. Years ago Santa Monica, thinking ahead, instigated the purchase of the Exposition right of way to hold for future light rail use. Ever since then Santa Monicans have assumed the Expo line would come here. ... Beneath Council Member Rosendahl's affability lurked a challenge. The question is, was the council member's challenge one to Santa Monica's regional role, or one to its lack of regional consciousness?"

I was surprised at finding myself nodding agreement while reading Richard Tolmach's article "Every Hour Trains: Why Note Here?" in the June-July issue of California Rail News. I have in the past found at times Tolmach a bit bombastic but felt he made a strong case in this instance for clock-work service. Bold thinking like Tolmach's is what we will need if there is any hope of our achieving Mayor Villaraigosa's goal of residents carpooling or using transit at least once a week to reduce congestion. If the Mayor is serious, this is not merely about spending and bus equipment deployment but reconceiving our way of thinking about urban living.

While most old transit buses are sold at auction, sometimes they have a more noble fate. Two recent examples: Riverside Transit is donating a surplus Superbus to the Riverside County Community Health Agency Dept. of Animal Services. And the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District has sold one of its old Gilligs to American Medical Response, which plans to convert the vehicle into a mobile treatment center for use during large disasters, multicasualty incidents and public health emergencies within Santa Barbara County.

I'll conclude this month by offering my thanks to Edmund Buckley of Western Transit for bringing to my attention this eye-opening paragraph buried in the minutes of the June 14 meeting of the Bus Operations Subcommittee: "The General Managers met on June 8. The primary item of discussion was a study that MTA has initiated with Booz Allen Hamilton to look at sweeping changes to how funding is distributed through the formula, how specific bus lines might be transferred from the MTA to munis, and how fares might become more standardized region wide. The material presented was broad and a bit confusing. The response from the GM was constrained. Booz Allen Hamilton has promised a written summary of their work to everyone by month's end. The munis informed MTA management that they too were working on an FAP proposal to be brought forward soon as part of this discussion. Shortly, the MTA and muni executive oversight committee will likely meet to review these proposals". Oh, boy!