A dispute over the value of a key parcel of railyards land is getting closer to a resolution. An arbitration hearing began Monday over land likely to become the home of a future arena and a regional transit center. On Monday, two weeks of witness testimony began to help determine how much the city of Sacramento should pay developer Thomas Enterprises for nearly 33 acres of prime land adjacent to downtown. The land also holds historic value as the western start of the first transcontinental railroad. The city already paid $55 million for the parcel in 2006 after Thomas Enterprises bought the 244-acre former railyards site. But the city and the developer have never agreed on the parcel's

 Three young women navigated the west sidewalk of 18th Street last Friday evening. The one in front says to her friends behind her, "Last time we were down here, I was thinking I might like to live here." The Friday night scene was crackling, with loud music filling the air and cars filling the streets. "Yeah," says her friend, "but you'd need a place with a driveway. There's actually a lot more of them than I thought." The third woman says, "You wouldn't have much of a back yard." The trio crossed 18th Street at Capitol and stopped to reclaim their car from the valet. The street parking or East End Parking Garage may have been closer to whichever business they were coming from, but the

Want to save money, reduce your time in traffic, improve air quality and get the chance to win a $50 gift certificate? This October is the time to give your car the day off and try a different way to get around. Pick any week in October to try an alternative to driving alone for any of your daily trips. Share the ride (carpool), take transit, telecommute, bike or walk. If you can make a change for any trip (errands, work or elsewhere) three days in a week, you could win a $50 gift certificate to a local bicycle shop, a local restaurant or for transit passes.. If you aren’t sure where to start, visit www.sacregion511.org for tips and tools for ridesharing, transit and bicycling. That’s al

What's Sacramento Regional Transit to do? There's just no good news. That at least is the conclusion to be drawn from the agenda package for Monday's board of director's meeting. General Manger Mike Wiley tries to paint a rosy tint on his Key Performance Report to the board. "Despite the economic challenges imposed by declining tax revenues and state budget cuts to public transit funding, the District's financial statistic report closing out fiscal year 2009 is positive ($6.6M*)," Wiley says. Yes, but... Take away the largess of the Obama administration and Congress' efforts to stimulate the economy -- $8 million more than RT had counted on in its budget -- and that $6.6 million evapor

Seniors who are 75 or older or will be prior to Sept. 1, should hurry down to the RT service center at 13th and R streets and pick up their free lifetime pass. On Sept. 2, the free pass will be no more. On Monday, staff will ask the board to approve a Super Senior Discount that will drop the monthly pass from $50, the price riders 62-74 pay, to $40. A good deal, but not free. (<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/17598999/090727RTItem16SuperSeniorDiscount">Read the staff report.</a>) And while we're on the topic of the end of free things, commuters who park at Watt/I-80, Watt West and the Roseville Road will have to pay $1 a day to park beginning next year if the staff manages to get its p

On Monday evening, General Manager Mike Wiley volunteered to skip his monthly Key Performance Report to make time for the crowds who wanted to rail against proposed fare hikes and service cuts. He was most likely happy to avoid the onerous task of delivering still another report about declining ridership and fare income falling short of expectations. In May, the district experienced a double-digit decline in system ridership, the second month in a row of negative growth. And for the second month in a row, fare revenue was under budget, which has exacerbated the district's financial situation. The report Wiley wrote but didn't deliver at the meeting attempts to put a smiley face on May's

Sacramento Regional Transit's board of directors tinkered around the edges of a staff-proposed solution to the district's budget mess, but in the end accepted that fares had to be increased and services reduced. Only directors Roger Dickinson and Steve Cohn balked. In September, the basic fare will increase from $2.25 to $2.50 and the discount fare paid by students and seniors from $1.10 to $1.25. Gone will be the central city fare, the shuttle service fare and the discount shuttle service fare. Basically, there will be just two fares -- full and discount -- and you'll have to pay that fare each time you board a bus or light rail train. The 50 cent transfer fee (25 cents for students and

Sacramento Regional Transit's board will be asked Monday to decide whether to adopt a larger fare increase than originally proposed last month in order to accept a smaller reduction in bus service. But that won't be the end of the discussion. The staff has asked the board to hold a hearing next month to plan for the service cuts that will be necessary in January if the district's budget picture doesn't improve. "Given the uncertainty and potential severity of January service changes, staff intends to notice all routes for elimination, so as to allow contingency planning with maximum flexibility," the staff report says. RT had originally proposed to raise $1.8 million through fare increas

I'm not going to be attending Monday's Sacramento Regional Transit board meeting. At about 6 p.m. I'm going to be doing the work required prior to having a colonoscopy Tuesday morning. I'm not sure who will have the more distasteful job Monday evening, me or RT's staff. General Manager Mike Wiley will report to the board that total ridership in April declined for the first time since last November. Ridership in April was down 3.62 percent compared with April of last year. The number of riders was also down when compared with March. The rolling year total -- May 2008 to April 2009 vs. May 2007 to April 2008 -- shows the district still 7.34 percent higher than the comparison 12 months. Bus

On May 11, Sacramento Regional Transit's board of directors set in motion the machinery required to reduce service levels. The first look at what that machine has wrought will come Monday at the board's executive committee meeting. The staff operate under ground rules established by the board back on Aug. 29, 2001. Bus routes have to meet certain criteria and those that fall below the standard are subject to remedial action. Those rules worked well enough during service reductions mapped out in 2006 and 2008, but not this year. "Using the 2001 Guidelines as the strategy for recommending reductions at this time would affect routes which currently maintain a relatively healthy ridership b

In January 2008, Sacramento Regional Transit cut bus service 5 percent in order to balance the 2008 fiscal year budget. To balance the 2009 budget, RT eliminated the free rides for Paratransit-qualified riders, raised the price of monthly passes from $85 to $100, daily passes from $5 to $6 and single fares from $2 to $2.25. Now for 2010, RT is again standing in a budget hole looking for a way out. Monday evening, RT staff will present its proposals for balancing the coming year's budget and get some direction from the district's Executive Board Committee on whether any of these ideas will fly when the issue gets a public hearing before the full board on June 8. The fare increases that t

Without a word of discussion, the Sacramento Regional Transit District board Monday evening unanimously approved a staff request to start the process required to cut bus service. Thirty-six weekday, Saturday and Sunday routes face reduction, realignment or elimination. Bus service cuts could begin as soon as Sept. 6. "State funding in the Public Transportation Account (PTA) has been reduced, and RT's State Transit Assistance (STA) share of funding has declined to zero beginning in Fiscal Year 2010," according to the RT staff agenda background document. "This will continue into future years. At the same time, Local Transportation Funds and Measure A funding have also declined due to the re

Five Sacramento streets will be resurfaced with money provided by the federal economic stimulus package, according to a press release from the Department of Transportation. The streets to receive the overlays will be: Truxel Road, from Del Paso Road to Gateway Park Boulevard Arena Boulevard, from East Commerce Way to Gateway Park Boulevard Arden Way, from Del Paso Boulevard to Evergreen Street Florin Road, from 24th Street to Franklin Boulevard Calvine Road, from Franklin Boulevard to Bruceville Road Bids for the project, which is expected to cost $8.1 million, will be posted in late May. Work is anticipated to start in late June. Additionally, the following streets will also be

Sacramento Regional Transit received some welcome news from the Sacramento Area Council of Governments today. SACOG has set aside $22.24 million in federal stimulus money for RT's use. But the largesse may just add fuel to a growing dispute between RT and the Paratransit board, not to mention undermining efforts to force cost-cutting concessions from RT employees. SACOG announced the distribution of $76 million for transportation projects in Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties. The SACOG press release said this is in addition to $32 million authorized in February for road rehabilitation. The amounts are based on the region’s estimate of funds from the American Recovery and Reinvest

Sacramento Regional Transit has quietly opened an email alert system for its Neighborhood Ride bus routes. "Do you want to know if your Neighborhood Ride bus is delayed before you walk to the bus stop? With RT’s new Transit Alert service, all you need to do is enter your travel schedule and contact information to receive notification by e-mail or mobile phone about disruptions that may affect your trip. Transit Alert is a free subscription service that will quickly notify you by e-mail or mobile phone if your Neighborhood Ride route is affected by schedule changes or service disruptions. Information will only be sent about the Neighborhood Ride routes you choose, when you choose. Trans

Sacramento Regional Transit will soon nickel and dime people who want paper copies of district documents and likely this year start charging to use light rail park-and-ride lots, but none of that will be worth a penny if RT doesn’t get at least $14 million in federal stimulus money. In the past 12 months, RT has had to deal with an $18.3 million reduction in state funding. A number of cost-cutting moves have been implemented and this year RT resorted to raising fares. Last week, the state took another $3.9 million that RT had been banking on, and next year there will be nothing from the state. RT staff presented a grim budget outlook. Last year’s revenues totaled $149 million. This fisc

Two separate money-making ideas will be on the agenda of the Sacramento Regional Transit board of directors meeting Monday evening -- charging to use RT's park-and-ride lots and charging for copies of documents. The parking fee is a rerun of the idea shot down late last year when the board was deciding how it would fill the hole in the budget left by the state's thievery. Whether or not it will receive a better reception now is anyone's guess, but the state's theft of still more money RT had been banking on surely increases the need to do something. Tonight's discussion on the parking fee is an informational item focused on two areas: 1. If RT charged a fee to utilize the park and ride

Sacramento Regional Transit General Manager Mike Wiley has plenty of good news to give the district board of directors at Monday evening's meeting. But it's just not enough to make up for the bad news coming from the economy in general and the state in particular. And it won't forestall consideration of charging for using RT's park-and-ride lots Wiley reports in his "FY 09 -- Key Performance Report" that systemwide ridership is up 10.2 percent counting year-to-date and up the same margin when compared with last January. Light rail is up 7.1 percent on a year-to-date scale and 11.54 percent compared with last January. The bus ridership year-to-date is 13.6 percent higher and compared with

The final deal that state lawmakers forged the other day is slightly -- only very slightly -- better for transit agencies, but it won't stop the bleeding. Sacramento Regional Transit has begun talking to unions about mandatory furloughs and the end of Sunday service. On Monday, the RT board will consider ending free parking at RT park-and-ride lots. Transit agencies normally receive quarterly payments from the state. Last year, these State Transit Assistance funds amounted to $306 million, which were the paltry leftovers after $1.8 billion in transit-dedicated funding available for 2008-09 was raided to patch other holes in the state general fund. Sacramento Regional Transit's share of th

I suppose there's some grim humor in this. California lawmakers will apparently throw transit agencies under the bus in order to steal the last pittance of state support in order to balance the budget. It's shameful. Here's the text of a press release from the California Transit Association: 'Armageddon Scenario' Has Arrived If the new proposal to bridge the state budget gap is adopted, public transit providers will be finished commiserating over ongoing state budget cuts. That's because the latest plan to emanate from the "Big 5" budget negotiators doesn't just cut public transportation funding - it eliminates it. Already saddled with an 85 percent raid on available state funding sou