Sacramento, CA – Senator Steven Glazer released the following statement regarding the crisis facing Bay Area BART commuters.
“We are in a transportation crisis in my district. Thousands and thousands of people are arriving late for work, school and important meetings because BART failed to get in front of these foreseeable problems.
“The maintenance problems at BART have not just occurred overnight. They have been years in the making due to financial and leadership failures by the BART Board and management.
“These failures have been reflected in unaffordable employee and management compensation, wasteful spending on public relations and image building, inoperative security systems, and the inability to keep the trains running during strikes. These management breakdowns are also reflected in the paralysis that has resulted in the clear underfunding for maintenance, track, technology and train improvements.
“Our transportation system is an essential service in the Bay Area. Without the public’s trust in the leadership of BART, future investment in the system is in grave jeopardy.”
4 comments
What is your proposed solution? I have been riding since 1975 and have totally lost confidence and trust in all this is. BART. I can’t vote for additional funding when I see zero security and the homeless allowed to destroy the system and surrounding areas daily. What steps are being taken to prevent this problem of a broken down system from being a continual issue? Lastly, I feel 1,000% ripped off that Antioch is not getting regular BART like Silicon Valley which is slated to start running next year while East County still waits 45 years later with no start date.
Senator Glazer could go a lot further by introducing legislation that would make it illegal for all public employees and services to go on strike. Other states and our federal government have already taken those steps. There was some furer, but it is actually working in those areas that have taken those necesssry steps. Senator Glazer could take the first step here in California .
Always the political opportunist, Sen. Glazer is trying to put a political problem on a needed engineering solution. Identify the electrical/mechanical problem, generate alternatives, pick the best one, and work 24/7 to fix it.
Glazer blames part of problem on the union. In this case of engineering failure he is reaching. However, will never understand the existence of Public Unions. The workers provide a public service. When the public wants services and the worker says “not until you pay me what I believe I’m worth will I serve you” we have ??? moment. The tax paying public should not have to be subjected to this twisted logic. BART workers wages far exceed a “living wage” (survivable and appreciated non-monetary).
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