Name: RTA needs to find $254 million to bring entire network to state of good repair
Brand: cleveland.com
SKU: cleveland-com-365
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

RTA needs to find $254 million to bring entire network to state of good repair

preview

rtatrain.jpgRTA needs another $254 million to keep its buses, trains, tracks and stations in good repair.(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The&nbsp;Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority has $254 million in unfunded projects that are needed to restore all corners of its bus and rail network to good condition.The stark math of the shortfall was set forth Tuesday as RTA trustees approved the agency's 2016 budget for infrastructure investments and took a five-year look at its needs through 2020.RTA has identified federal, state and local sources for $338 million in improvements over the next five years, though $100 million of that will be for simply maintaining buses, trains and track.The biggest new projects include the purchase of natural gas-burning buses ($67 million), bridge repair ($23.8 million), upgrading the electrical system of rapid lines ($19.3 million) and rehabilitating stretches of rail track ($31.3 million).But RTA's plan for vehicle, track and station improvements also cites more than a quarter of a billion dollars in work that languishes, for now at least, without money to pay for it."We have done much but additional funding must be identified to maintain GCRTA in a state of good repair," said Mike Daugherty, manager of budgets.The list of "known unfunded" needs includes:RTA also has a lot of track and track beds that need to be improved. Gale Fisk, executive director of the Office of Management and Budget, cited a budget hole of:On top of that, RTA figures it will have to replace 60 rail cars in about a decade, at a total cost of $280 million.To tide things over, RTA renovated the Blue and Green line cars six years ago and is about midway in&nbsp;refurbishing Red Line cars with upgraded seats, new windows and LED lighting. Sixteen cars have been overhauled so far; the remaining 24 are to be done by next June.George Zeller, an economic research analyst, said Cuyahoga County has had a record 46 consecutive months of increases in sales taxes, which make up 70 percent of RTA's operating budget.But those gains have not been offset by anemic public transit funding by the Ohio Department of Transportation and a $3 million cut in Census-based federal funding that reflects the decline in the county's population.

rtatrain.jpgRTA needs another $254 million to keep its buses, trains, tracks and stations in good repair.(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The&nbsp;Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority has $254 million in unfunded projects that are needed to restore all corners of its bus and rail network to good condition.The stark math of the shortfall was set forth Tuesday as RTA trustees approved the agency's 2016 budget for infrastructure investments and took a five-year look at its needs through 2020.RTA has identified federal, state and local sources for $338 million in...

public

Alison Grant

The Plain Dealer

Breaking news, sports and entertainment from across Northeast Ohio.

cleveland.com

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

RTA needs to find $254 million to bring entire network to state of good repair

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS