How to blow $2 Million before July

I heard a RUMOR from inside today that SEPTA is running a $2 million surplus for this fiscal year. To qualify for subsidy next year, the $2 million must be spent and accounted for.

I don't know if this is capital dollars or operating dollars.

That being the case, anyone care to guess what SEPTA is going to waste this money on? Maybe that's why there's such a rush to "clean up" City Hall station all of the sudden.

If anyone can confirm this rumor, please do so.

$2 Million dollars would get us another PCC......wishful thinking of course.

jfrey40535 wrote:$2 Million dollars would get us another PCC.......

Or the first prototype of a new type of LRVs to equip the 23 and 56, replace the K-cars, and push the PCCs into the tourist loops they belong on.

and push the PCCs into the tourist loops they belong on

...like F Market in San Francisco, or Ashmont-Mattapan in Boston?

Free rides for a day/week/month/year?

How about extend the R8 to Walnut Hill? (we'll go one station at a time!)

Irish Chieftain wrote:

and push the PCCs into the tourist loops they belong on

...like F Market in San Francisco, or Ashmont-Mattapan in Boston?

The former. The Rt15 makes clear that the PCC just isn't a viable transit vehicle for regular service any more. The PCC IIs are nice cars, but they're too small, and passenger unfriendly to justify more cars. Add to that the fact that the number of PCC shells out there for rebuilding into PCC IIs is limited and the PCC derived LRV is a decided cul-de-sac in streetcar development. With so few PCCs out there it is foolish to waste these potentially historic cars in regular service where they'll likely be beaten back into garbage in 15 to 20 years. Make the Chestnut St Busway an actual transitway with a mountable curb between it and the traffic and lay the tracks it was supposed to have. That way a tourist route can run from the zoo, past the Convention Center, to Penns Landing. With the City Subway branch the line can be within a few blocks of the Art Musuem, the Frankin Institute, and the Free Library.

The PCC IIs are perfect for this role. They're air conditioned, equipped with wheelchair lifts, and IMHO undersized for proper transit service. All that's needed is a replacement for the 18 PCC IIs. I'd prefer to see SEPTA go with something off-the-shelf, and the only thing I can see fitting SEPTA's requirement is a derivative of the Skoda Astra 03T vehicle. For 2 million dollars SEPTA could get one tagged onto the orders for Portland or DC and get it modified to work on broad gauge and with a trolley pole. It could be put through it's paces on the 15, then tested on the Subway Surface. Presumably in an ideal world the order following prototype testing would enter service on the restored 23 and 56, then another order would remove the PCCs from Rt15 service. 10 or more years down the road another order of LRVs, either Skodas or another car type, would be placed to replace the K-cars. The obvious advantage is that by that time the Skodas will have had all the bugs worked out.

jfrey40535 wrote:I heard a RUMOR from inside today that SEPTA is running a $2 million surplus for this fiscal year. To qualify for subsidy next year, the $2 million must be spent and accounted for.

I've never heard anything like this before (requiring SEPTA to spend down a surplus, not their running a surplus). While SEPTA is nominally required to balance its budget at the end of the year, SEPTA has in the past run deficits, both acknowledged and hidden, and I suspect they also have completed some years with modest surpluses. Ours are at the office, but a quick glance at some past SEPTA annual reports should confirm this.

Furthermore, SEPTA's subsidies are mostly, if not completely, set by formula: the state raises money from specific taxes, and allocates it to the different transit systems on a percentage basis. Local subsidies are set by matching ratios.

And finally, I have no doubt in the ability of SEPTA's finance people to massage the books and roll a surplus into next year's budget, and no ethical qualms about their doing so (at least to this magnitude). Costs and revenues are very hard to predict even just 12 months in advance, and private sector firms have no problem with mild fluctuations in net income.

I don't know if this is capital dollars or operating dollars.

Definitely wouldn't be capital.

Maybe that's why there's such a rush to "clean up" City Hall station all of the sudden.

Nope. That's been in the works at least several months, and probably a good deal longer.

If anyone can confirm this rumor, please do so.

Paging Bob Clearfield... Maybe you can squash this and our moderator can lock the topic down.

Thanks for clarifying Matt....again, rumor came from the inside, to show you how much SEPTA planners know about their own organization.

that $2 million will evaporte the second a new fuel contract is signed for SEPTAs 9 million buses

I guess a free HO scale Frankford-Market Subway car model to everyone who writes and asks nicely would be out of the question?

(Besides, any surplus would be easily set aside for future use, or in the 'worst case' used to pay down debt)

I'm not really sure about their finance structure, but does SEPTA have some debt that needs to be paid down? Or are they not allowed to issue bonds?

In the alternative, they could commission some studies about R3 West Chester and R8 Newtown. That seems to be their favorite place to put money with no discernable results.

Their annual budget does itemize debt service, so a portion of the budget is dedicated to paying off debt, be it in the form of bonds or whatever debt instrument they use.

Matthew Mitchell wrote:

If anyone can confirm this rumor, please do so.

Paging Bob Clearfield... Maybe you can squash this and our moderator can lock the topic down.

Rumors are rumors and I think that we have quashed this one.

*ker-thunk*