Recently, Greater Portland Metro announced it wants millions more of our tax money to buy four electric buses that each cost $300,000 more than a conventional, clean diesel bus. They say these buses carry twice as many passengers as the ones they currently operate. Earth to Metro: Your buses are already nowhere near capacity, and on average operate half full at best.
Readers should conduct their own reviews of Metro buses on the road. See how busy they are. The new request for larger, gold-plated, electric buses, that the same small number of people will ride, continues Metro’s money grab of taxpayer dollars, without regard to what it costs us. All we get in return is an ever-escalating bill.
Metro has also recently captured another $4 million-plus in taxpayer money for seven to eight diesel buses, and another $2 million in operational costs, so they can seize a college shuttle that private bus companies have run for over 40 years, without taxpayer money. Using taxpayer dollars to compete with private enterprise, and adding unnecessary routes and equipment, is not fiscally responsible management.
Ironically, Metro reported that The Breeze route to Brunswick hit ridership numbers near 150 people a day. To reach that number, it takes 14 runs to Brunswick from Portland, and 14 runs back. That’s 28 trips for 150 passengers, or 5.4 passengers average per trip, an incredibly poor use of taxpayer money. Wasn’t the Amtrak Downeaster’s run to Brunswick supposed to fill that need? That’s a story for a later date.
The next time you see a half-empty Metro bus – and that will be very soon – remember that you are paying for all that wasted space. And it’s only going to get worse – if you let it.
Gregg Isherwood
president, Custom Coach and Limousine
Windham
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