Sacramento Regional Transit General Manager entered cyberspace for an hour Friday for his monthly web chat. The full text of the session can be found here. What follows is a personalized summary, along with a little regrouping to make the story a little easier to follow.

Being the state capital and the home to so many state workers, it wasn’t surprising that the topic of furloughs was on the minds of several participants in the chat.

Wiley offered that RT won’t be giving Regional Transit staff extra three-day weekends. “No,” he said, “Furloughs only save money for Regional Transit if they are in concert with service reductions. We want to avoid an additional service reduction. The transit system is seeing huge increases in ridership. Cutting service when we are having these great ridership gains, doesn't make sense. Our goal is to trim everything else in an attempt to avoid service reductions and layoffs.”

He also explained that RT has been there, done that with service cuts: “Due to previous state budget cuts, RT cut 5 percent of unproductive bus service in January 2008. The $18.3 million loss of state funds for this fiscal year resulted in a fare increase effective January 1, 2009.”

Actually, Wiley said RT considered the furlough option: “The vast majority of employees at Regional Transit are drivers and mechanics. We have just enough people to provide the service we operate. If we furloughed employees, we are indirectly cutting service for those trips that would not operate. In the case of our mechanics, buses and trains not safely maintained are not operated. This would result in sporadic service cuts throughout the system. We don't think service cuts are the answer to our budget problems.”

Which is not to say RT isn’t trying furlough-like options. Said Wiley, “We are looking for budget savings everywhere they might be found. This included a detailed analysis of potential furloughs. Those that pencil out are being brought forward to our board for their consideration. Some, like a hiring freeze for most positions, have been in place for nearly two years. We are totally focused on keeping our costs under control and finding savings where we can. We will avoid service cuts as long as possible. “

As a transit enthusiast myself, I want to underline and clip and save this part of Wiley’s chat: “With the ridership numbers we are seeing, service expansion is what's needed for the underserved communities in the region.”

Wiley also explained that the state furloughs won’t be used as a justification for service cuts. “No,” Wiley said, “we've looked at running holiday service on the State Furlough days, but since they only reduce the number of bus runs during the day, and only 26 additional days in a year, the cost savings are minimal. On light rail especially, many more people than state workers would be inconvenienced if we reduced light rail service. We may be reducing the length of the trains on those days as demand could be some what less.”

Speaking of the length of trains, Wiley was asked, “Do you think RT can operate three-car Light Rail trains in the middle of the day? It seems the current two-car non-peak operation between rush hours results in overcrowding, especially around lunch time.”

Wiley replied: “We monitor the conditions on the light rail and buses, and have noticed that there has been an increase in crowding during the midday. We have to plan well in advance to change the number of cars. … If crowding persists, we will consider increasing the number of midday cars. This is limited, however, by the maintenance requirements on the fleet. … There is a cost to increase the number of cars. With the State of California still considering an additional $3.9 million raid on our budget we may not have the funding to add service.”

Before we get too far from the furlough question, I must include this question from a Citrus Heights resident: “Given that the State has now mandated Furloughs to its employees, has RT considered giving a further break in cost to its State employee riders to help out?”

Disclosure moment: I’m married to a state government manager. I’m not a disinterested party to the consequences of what is, in effect, a 10 percent pay cut state workers will swallow if furloughs continue. Still, I think Wiley was right:

“The state subsidizes the cost of state employees' tickets,” he said. “Since the subsidy is set at a maximum amount the state contributes, employees will be receiving a full monthly subsidy spread over fewer days. From RT's perspective we are loosing a large number of riders each day the state furloughs employees on top of the transit dollars the State is raiding to help balance the State budget. It's important to remember that the fare revenue we collect covers about 25% of our operating cost.”

While the state has been taking money away from RT, it looks Congress may soon throw some cash RT’s way: “RT will receive an as yet undetermined amount of funding under the stimulus package. We have worked closely with our regional partners to identify ‘ready to go’ projects that can help us improve service to the public without drastically increasing our operating costs. As you may have read, the stimulus package does not provide any new resources for operating costs. However, we have requested funding for projects that allow us to implement limited stop services, continue to work on a second bus maintenance facility, rehabilitate some of our stations, refurbish 21 light rail vehicles, upgrade our work trucks and equipment, and implement an electronic information system for our riders (automatic vehicle location, next stop announcements, electronic signs). We will know more about how much money we might receive when President Obama signs the stimulus package into law. The current projection is that he will do so before February 15.”

Specific “ready-to-go” projects identified by Wiley include accelerating the South Line light rail extension and other key capital projects. “These projects would have a positive economic and environmental impact on the Sacramento region, and could add new service and improve RT's infrastructure,” he said. “All of the funding we expect to receive will be utilized for our capital program. At this point we do not expect to receive any financial support to cover our operating cost. Consequently, we will not be able to restore bus service reductions implemented in January 2008.”

Not only can the stimulus not be used for operating expenses, but it won’t be useful for buying buses or light rail cars.

“The stimulus money is intended to support capital projects that are "ready to go" within 90 days from the date of enactment of the law. Unfortunately, it takes about 18 months to order buses, and about 2-1/2 years to order trains, unless we can tack-on to an existing bus or rail car order,” Wiley explained. “So, RT went through its capital program and specifically identified projects that we could both commit the funds to (get our Board approval for) and expend the funds on within two years, as required in the stimulus package. We are requesting funds to rehabilitate the 21 rail cars that we bought from Valley Transit a few years ago. These will provide us with the ability to improve our service with limited stop (express) operations on the Blue Line from Downtown Sacramento to the Watt/I-80 Station.

On the subject of the Folsom express light rail service, a Carmichael resident asked it if would be possible to do that with the existing tracks.

“We are making changes to the signaling system to enable the limited stop service,” Wiley said. “Limited stop service is a service where we stop at only the major the stations. This saves time for the riders.”

Help for this effort, Wiley explained in response to another question, will arrive from the settlement of the Highway 50 HOV lane lawsuit settlement.”

“RT should receive the money from the Highway 50 compromise this summer, which will allow us to begin procurement of parts and equipment,” Wiley said. “There is no track construction as such, because we are talking about having limited stop (express) service from the Historic Folsom Station and 15 minute frequency service from the Hazel Station to downtown. The funding from Caltrans will actually fund signaling, safety, and grade crossing improvements to make the limited stop service operational.”

An “Elk Grove, CA, CA” resident (we have to use euphemisms for those things) asked: “Many aspects of the stimulus bill seem to be under attack. Is there anything we as citizens can do to make sure transit gets a good share of the stimulus funding?”

“Recent amendments to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) include funding for transportation infrastructure projects that suggest significant increases in transit spending including funding for "ready-to-go" projects. … These amendments are up for debate in the Senate. Contact your senators today and urge them to support amendments to increase transit spending.”

And Folsom improvements and the South line extension aren’t the only places where things may be moving soon.

Someone from Portland , OR,  asked, “Any long term plans about getting LR service to the airport?”

“Yes,” Wiley replied. “Only they are not so long-term. The RT Board of Directors directed staff to accelerate completion of the Downtown-Natomas-Airport (DNA) project as much as possible. We have therefore sped up planning for the project, with an anticipated completion date in 2017 for the connection to the Airport. This would coincide with the completion of the Airport's Terminal B expansion. As a "down payment" on this commitment, RT just this week released a Request for Qualifications for the design and construction of the first phase of the DNA, from 7th Street to Richards Boulevard. The projected revenue operation date of that segment is October 31, 2010.”

And to another question on the same topic, he added: “RT has made significant progress with the DNA line over the last several months. We are completing a project level Environmental Impact Report for the first segment from 7th and H to Richards Boulevard, and are planning to start the Federal environmental process on the rest of the line within the next year. This week, we published a request for qualifications for firms to bid on a design/build contract to design and build the first phase of the DNA. We are actively working with the City of Sacramento, the Railyards and Township 9 developments, and others, to clear issues along the right of way. Our goal is to complete the first phase, which we are calling "The Green Line", by October 31, 2010. We hope that we will have the funding to purchase and operate the Green Line using low-floor, universal access light rail cars, as a downtown circulator from our 13th Street Station all the way to Richards Boulevard.”

There’s more to read at the RT web site, but I want to end with this particularly useful exchange:

From Sacramento, CA: “Light Rail Door Alarms: The current buzzers that sound when doors open and close are really annoying. Can't we get a chime or tone that's a little less harsh on the ears?”

Wiley’s reply: “Actually, the buzzers are intended to be somewhat irritating.”

And you thought it was unintentional.

OK. That’s the Fox News version of what Wiley had to say. Here’s the SacramentoPress version:

“Actually, the buzzers are intended to be somewhat irritating so that people do not ignore them. They are a safety requirement, and they have to be audible even to persons with certain hearing impairments, so they know when the doors are preparing to close. It is actually a small irritation if it prevents someone from being injured by a closing door.”