Remember The Old Days When Bus Companies Paid For Themselves?

Express-Times 03/13/2014-- A $4 million grant to help pay for the Easton Intermodal Transportation Center was announced Wednesday ... "Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr. said the amount is the other half of a $7.2 million grant. He said the total project cost is about $32 million"

Remember The Old Days When Bus Companies Paid For Themselves?
Some Still Do!
For example, here locally Bieber & Trans-Bridge buses. They receive no government assistance to pay for their terminals or the rent for their stalls at the Port Authority in New York City.

Some may say this is a unfair comparison. My reply-- (1) Neither of them would consider spending several millions of dollars on terminals because they know they'll never be able to sell enough fares to cover them. (2) Both bus companies only sell routes they know will earn money.

Still others will argue the need for people to move to public transportation.
Counter Argument-- It hasn't worked so far and most likely never will.

Others will point out, what are people to do if they don't own a car?
Counter Argument-- Should taxpayers be obliged to pay not only for their own transportation but others as well?

Another point of argument is we spend money for the highways that both use.
Counter Argument-- Bus lines pay huge amounts for tolls and licensing to use them.

Let's be realistic here. Back in the days of Lehigh Valley Transit Company there was a need therefore a profit to be made. The reasons varied. To name two Most women didn't drive. There was only one car in a family. In today's world one would think as shopping moved from downtown along with the jobs local bus service would be more in demand then ever.

Before taxpayers pour million$ more into bus service one should stop and ask why isn't it in demand?

I'm strongly in favor of government providing for the needs of people, but clearly people are either unwilling or have only a limited need for local bus service. When it costs us 10's of millions of dollar$ over and above fare revenues one should stop and question why taxpayers are compelled to continue providing bus service at this level so few riders are willing to pay for. Shouldn't we instead provide the fewest number of buses and routes that are vital? Those that connect to the industrial parks at morning and afternoon prime hours, hospitals, etc. In short, this whole system has to be appropriately downsized.

This like some of our other government programs has become an entity unto itself for the sake of itself. Every time government gets involved in what should be private enterprise, knowing it will be a losing proposition, they form some kind of "authority" or another. This is another one of those.