The state must reinvent transportation policies

Public mass transit is an essential government service. The popular misconception that the Port Authority is mismanaged because it isn't profitable is not true. No public mass-transit operation anywhere in North America recovers more than 35 percent of its operating costs from passenger revenues. Each time its operating policies were audited the authority adopted virtually all the recommended changes.

No business can operate profitably under the conditions imposed on the Port Authority. These are conditions created by the General Assembly, not the Port Authority, which is constantly being condemned for inefficiencies and poor management.

Every public mass transit authority throughout the state will encounter a similar financial crisis, probably before the end of 2010, if the commonwealth's current transportation funding crisis is not immediately solved by the General Assembly.

The Port Authority was created because a significant number of Allegheny County's private mass transit providers were facing eventual financial collapse. Obviously, privatization of all or part of the Port Authority's operations, as some advocate, will not solve the mass-transit funding problems in Allegheny County.

The General Assembly must reinvent Pennsylvania's archaic and flawed transportation policies, not only for mass transit but also for the commonwealth's highway system. If entirely new transportation policies are not enacted, the transit riders in Allegheny County and the Philadelphia area can expect recurring financial problems and the highway users throughout the state will continue to be subjected to deteriorating highways and bridges.

JOHN D. WEINHOLD
Dormont