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| LANTA driver Rich Gubish blocked hit-and-run driver |
* There's been an 8% increase in service.
* A new Allentown bus maintenance garage is being built. It's funded by a $10.4 million federal grant and will be completed by the Summer of next year.
* The Easton Intermodal is moving forward. Plans are to break ground next Summer. Mayor Sal Panto, who was present, stated that the City will hire a "well known developer in the Lehigh Valley," but will not name this developer until the contract is signed. This complex will include a High School Hall of Fame.
* Twenty new para-transit vans are in service.
* An order has been placed for 10 heavy-duty hybrid buses, in addition to 5 of them currently in operation. in 2013, another 7-8 hybrids will be ordered. The average life span of a bus, incidentally, is 12 years. The money for this comes from a federal grant. LANTA will be looking to convert to natural gas, and is going to conduct a feasibility study.
* On 9/10, there will be some new enhancements in evening service along Union Boulevard and from South Bethlehem to Lehigh Valley Mall. That will be another 3% increase in service.
* Musikfest is always a challenge to LANTA, but Exec Director Armando Greco considers this year's experience a success. "We measure our success by how many windows are broken. This year, there were no windows broken, so we had a great year!"
* LANTA locked into a fuel plan earlier this year that now is 30-40 cents below the market price for fuel. "We got lucky," Greco modestly stated.
26 comments:
Tim Brady, hmmm, didn't we go to grade school with a fella by that name? Wonder if it's the same guy?
Around the right age, but I think it's a different guy. I'll ask him.
LANTA... who really uses that service? I know, I know, there are some. But LANTA is a loser when it comes to remotely breaking even. Every bus being used is nearly empty, except on limited occasion. If anything, this service needs to be cut back more.
Next summer. Next year. Men and women need public transportation now to get to work! Is it true LANTA
admitted it had not changed its schedule for 25 years! Who in the private sector could possibly get by ignoring its customer base for 25 years and still be in business?
Who really uses LANTA? Modest income families trying to get by
and be productive citizens and support their loved ones, that's who.
anon coward 6:32,
Was that a bigoted comment?
"It's funded by a $10.4 million federal grant "
Must have been sleeping while we paid off the federal credit card and found ourselves flush with cash to dole out. Or, was it simply another charge over the limit?
Another example of locals or, in this case, local lookie-whats-we got-for-you pols and bureaucrats wanting what they can't pay for themselves.
Success measured by how many broken windows we have? That would be about on par with the analytical skill of most government types.
But, hey, if the clocks run on time...
-Clem
Oops. Trains, but you get it.
-Clem
Another tax-payer subsidized program.
Walk or ride a BIKE!
7:02, LANTA has made numerous schedule changes over the last 25 years. In the past year, it has made changes, twice, to increase its service. Along Union Boulevard, it has added evening trips. Between Trexlertown and Allentown, it has added an afternoon round trip. From Hellertown to S Beth to the LV Malll, there is now additional evening service. There has been increased service to NCC, as well as to the shopping along Rte 248.
6:32, LANTA is a public authority that operates within a budget. It does rely on public tax dollars, mostly gas taxes. It serves everyone who has $2 for the fare. I ride it from time to time. I have seen the buses packed with students on the NCC run. I have seen the bus packed with workers and shoppers. I have also been on empty buses, although not as much as you might think.
This has been going on since the days of the trolley. It serves many public purposes, too many to list in a blog comment. Are you suggesting that we should not provide some kind of funding for mass transit? I could understand nt funding passenger rail to NYC, which seems like a fool's folly. But buses for students, the elderly and people with modest incomes?? Walk or ride a bike?
lanta is not free from hypocrisy. when they abandoned the transfer stations on hamilton street they claimed that they do not have a responsibility to any particular shopping venue, yet increased their schedule to the LV Mall. their new terminal in allentown was entrenched in politics, involving the allentown parking authority and the morning call. now of course those merchants who lost their customers from the bus changes, have since lost their stores to the arena. their new terminal in easton will likewise not be in the best interest of the merchants, but serve a bigger agenda by panto's administration.
Armondo Greco has one of the cushiest jobs in the Valley. He is always years behind the curve, no inovations, yet keeps going year after year.
The guy is textbook study for anyone wanting to have a title, draw a big salary and do nothing.
Nice work if you can get it.
Easton is clean and safe. The bus terminal hall of fame will be a centerpiece of something fantastic - as all publicly funded bus terminals are. And Sal Panto doesn't raise taxes.
MM has it all wrong.
well i'm glad to see that it isn't just welfare latinos and gays riding the buses. when whites ride the bus it sort of makes you proud to be an american
Eliminate the entire operation!
I've used the bus system since it was Lehigh Valley transit and lanta does a good job. Every bus system in the country is subsidized, just like roads, bridges, airports and other 'public infrastructure' entities. Bernie, your assessment of lanta is fair. Molvnski, you still have it out for them because of the bodegas on Hamilton St. Just aske us riders where we would prefer to wait for our buses. No question the ATC with an indoor waiting area and Dunkin Donuts is the best. I hope Easton's is just as good as I go there a couple times a month. Someone knocks Greco, but I can tell you that Lanta got critized by the feds last year for running too much like a business, and that they were too efficient. They even suggested that they put out more buses even if they are not used that much.
Armondo, time to go to bed. Even with a 10am start time.
Buses are great, but trains, trolleys and trams would be better.
It was a shame that the passenger rail idea never left the station. Nothing could do more to revitalize the three center cities than that. Too bad there's not more vision in the Lehigh Valley.
There is plenty of 'vision' in the lehigh valley. What there is not enough of are people who live in the 'cities' that either do or want to work in the cities. The suburbs and ex-urbs are where the productive people reside and the jobs are in the industrial parks that ring the cities. Until the cities three mayors drop belief that it is there job to mother and father the population they will be condemned to fate that lies ahead.
8:59 Do you have any idea how much it would cost?? It would be cheaper to hire limos and pour cocktails for passengers as they are driven to their destination.
I have criticized Greco, harshly, over the way he handled the bus routing changes along Hamilton Street. That was a few years ago. I stand by those criticisms. MM led the charge on that one.
There is no question in my mind that LANTA, dealing as it does with government on every level, is mired in politics. It is unavoidable. Having said that, I have been impressed by Greco. He is quiet, efficient and seems to know how to get grants better than just about anyone in the LV. His salary is not all that high, either, which surprises me.
What defines high for doing next to nothing?
If you want to attack another reader, identify yourself. I really can't stand cowards like you who do this.
The biggest problem with Lanta is that it only serves the cities and spends too much time busing to the malls instead of out to places where people work and run them for all three shifts, not just two.
If we are all about jobs, Lanta should re-purpose it's system to get people out to jobs 24/7.
They spend too much time with mall runs and runs between cities.
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