Word: transite
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Chicago, the nation's second largest transit system (1 million subway, el and bus passengers a day) is going flat broke while the state legislature bickers over funding. Businesses and commuters are already reserving hotel rooms, forming car pools and making other contingency plans for a shutdown that could come as early as this week...
...Boston, which closed down its entire transit system for 26 hours last December, has just enough money to operate its subways and buses (300,000 riders) through the fall. City officials have already been forced to lay off 100 of its 6,700 transit workers, and only narrowly averted a walkout last week by postponing the layoffs of an additional 220 employees...
...York, whose transit system is the nation's largest (5 million daily users) and may also be its worst, already beleaguered straphangers were horrified to read headlines predicting a $1.55 fare by the summer of 1983 (vs. 600 today and 300 in 1970) in return for steadily deteriorating service in graffiti-sprayed cars...
Aggravating the situation were a number of long-term trends. In the 1950s, transit ridership declined precipitously (see chart). Americans fell in love with the automobile, honeymooned on new highways and married into the suburbs. Subways and buses were not part of the post-World War II American dream. When the energy crisis hit in 1973, the country found that its railroad beds had deteriorated and its subways were falling apart. The Federal Government called for more efficient public transit and urged private companies to design a better bus (see box). Mass transit was going to be the methadone that...
Public transportation is in hot demand again, but today no one wants to pick up the tab. A decade ago, to lure people back to mass transit, city and state officials made the mistake of holding fares to unrealistically low levels. From 1970 to 1975, while inflation was rising nearly 40%, fares were not increased at all in many cities; in some, they actually decreased. Mass transit was the closest thing to a free ride...