THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Public v Private Bus service to sporting events

Montreal has the finest bus, metro (subway), and train service you can hope for (if you intend to go downtown).  Luckily, almost everything in Montreal is in the downtown area.  Basically, Montreal has a hub downtown, and everything shoots off there, whether you live anywhere on the island, or off the island.  Transportation to where the Expos used to play or where the Canadiens currently play is a piece of cake.  Where the CFL Als play (at the outskirts of downtown, and quite a steep climb at some point), there is a special bus route provided by the city and Als for free.  (I have no idea how much the Als subsidize the venture.  Whatever it is, I’d presume it’s no more than $1 per passenger.)

In Seattle however, things changed due to some 2008 federal regulation, to which the Mariners got an exemption last year but not this year.  Apparently, the M’s have to contract with a private bus company, and cannot use public transportion (unlike say Montreal):

A Federal Transit Administration rule that went into effect in 2008 prohibits Metro from offering the “Metro to the Mariners” bus service available to fans for many years. Metro received an exemption from this rule in 2008, but has been told that no further exemption would be available.

The FTA rule prevents public transit agencies from providing special event service except on regularly scheduled routes and at regular fares.  Because Metro operated special routes to and from Safeco Field on event days, and charged a special fare to cover its costs, Metro can no longer provide the service previously offered.

The rule requires that the service be operated, if at all, by private charter companies, who could submit a bid for the service. There was one bid submitted, for slightly less than $20 per passenger each way. The Metro service rate was $3 each way, so the Mariners rejected the offer and under the FTA rule, could not offer bus service to any company, public or private.

A Mariners official said the organization and Metro have worked for more than a year to find a way to keep this service in place, and have petitioned elected officials for help.  But until the federal rule is changed, Metro will not be allowed to provide the service.

Derek has the appropriate amount of contempt for this law, where Derek quotes the FTA with this money quote:

The result was a rule that provides clear guidelines for the first time in 30 years, aimed at helping public transit agencies and private charter companies figure out who is in the best position to provide bus service for such events conveniently, efficiently, and economically.

But, how could this be?  Certainly, the FTA can’t be speaking from the point-of-view of the paying public, can it?  The Mariner fan has to now pay 20$ instead of 3$ for bus service.  Economically speaking, this is fantastic for the private bus company. 

I understand that perhaps the private bus company realizes that it can’t compete with public transportation.  That is really, really too bad.  They should realize that public transportation will take precedence over the welfare of any private company, ever.  Certainly in Montreal, no private company would dare compete with Montreal’s public transportation system in the manner that the federal government has legislated in America.

In NY/NJ, there are special buses from Port Authority that brings passengers from NYC to Giants/Jets Stadium, for a pretty low cost.  Am I to believe then that this federal law is going to impact those passengers as well?  I’d like to know, because if that’s the case, either you are going to get an enormous public outcry or the Giants/Jets are going to subsidize that transportation so that the public is unaware.