Oppose revenue bonds for the Central Subway

SaveMuni.com

OPPOSE CITY REVENUE BONDS FOR CENTRAL SUBWAY

Attend this meeting to oppose City revenue bonds for the Central Subway.

MTA Board Meeting

Tuesday, May 1, 2012, 1:00 pm start (Item 10.4 at +/- 2:00 pm)

City Hall, Room 400

SaveMuni.com has asked that Item10.4 be removed from the Consent Calendar.

The MTA is quietly authorizing and incurring debt for $61 million in revenue bonds for the Central Subway. But the premises of Prop A 2007, which granted revenue bond authority to the MTA, have not been met. Despite increased parking taxes/fees/fines/enforcement, the MTA has shifted those funds to work orders and bad projects, like the Central Subway. Mandated citywide improvements from the Transit Effectiveness Program (TEP) have not been implemented---only service cuts, discontinued routes, shortened and curtailed lines. Revenue bonds are needed to address Muni’s $25.4 billion in existing capital needs.

PROP A CHARTER AMENDMENT, November 2007, pages 39 and 115.

The MTA calls the issuance of revenue bonds as assurance funding in the event that State High Speed Rail Bond Funds are delayed. But Governor Jerry Brown has not supported the Central Subway Project for Proposition 1A High-Speed Rail funds, because “the project appears unrelated to the high-speed rail project or a comprehensive statewide rail plan.” In fact, the Central Subway disconnects Muni from High-Speed Rail:

· The Central Subway will eliminate the existing T-Line’s loop into Market Street’s Metro/ BART stations and the future High-Speed Rail hub at the Transbay Terminal.

· The Central Subway’s Reports to the FTA predict a reduction of 36,000 bus hours per year on the Stockton/Columbus corridor (76,400 bus hours per year in the FEIR)---a substantial decrease of buses to Caltrain at 4^th and King Streets, as well as northeastern and southeastern San Francisco.

· The Central Subway will be disconnected from all of Market Street’s Metro/BART Stations, going instead to a Union Square Station that is a 1,000 foot walk to the Powell Station.

· The Central Subway’s added $15 million annual operating costs will decrease citywide frequency of service.

· The T-Third Line’s completion (Phase 1) already reduced connectivity, eliminating the #15 bus to the Montgomery Metro/BART Station and reducing #41 buses to the Embarcadero Metro/ BART Station.

Regards,

Howard Wong, AIA

SaveMuni.com