tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3300947294999806492.post25418656023390892..comments2023-11-22T05:26:44.399-05:00Comments on Crossing the Lines: Bureaucracy and SubsidySteve Stofkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14825368520377993845noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3300947294999806492.post-20811798819686392312012-05-09T11:50:39.380-04:002012-05-09T11:50:39.380-04:00Alon, I'm merely expanding on what Stephen Smi...Alon, I'm merely expanding on what Stephen Smith's post, where he noted that the Bay Area and Switzerland have equivalent mass transit spending (subsidization) per capita, yet the services provided in Switzerland are quantifiably superior to those in the Bay Area. I think the underlying reason is actually excessively overlapping bureaucracies, which in its turn fuels turf wars. Notice that I canceled out the local transit providers (except for BART, because BART is representative of an S-Bahn system) when I listed how many Bay Area service providers provide the same services that just one--SBB--does in (most of) Switzerland.<br /><br />Isn't BLT a for-profit company? I'd like to know more about Bern S-Bahn.Steve Stofkahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14825368520377993845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3300947294999806492.post-69214973521617929522012-05-08T19:19:33.843-04:002012-05-08T19:19:33.843-04:00I think you're buying too much into turf war m...I think you're buying too much into turf war mentality when you treat Switzerland as a case of successful unity. You're right that most intercity and commuter rail functions are operated by SBB, but that's very far from all public transit in Switzerland. On top of it, in the Bern area, a partially privately-owned second railroad, BLS, has significant S-Bahn and intercity operations.<br /><br />The real difference is not just that there's less agency fragmentation, but also that different agencies cooperate instead of fighting turf wars. In the major cities, there's a verkehrsverbund that makes sure the fares and schedules are integrated across operators. The Bay Area has Clipper, which lets you pay a separate fare per operator on one card; Swiss (and German, and French) cities have free inter-operator transfers instead.Alonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17267294744186811858noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3300947294999806492.post-16087550084801609892012-05-02T11:08:10.918-04:002012-05-02T11:08:10.918-04:00This is great and I would second the notion that t...This is great and I would second the notion that transit is territorial. My agency, a commuter rail outfit in Chicago, gets into turf wars on a regular basis with our "competitors", really our sister agencies about the best way to provide service. We've tended to view ourselves as the suburban rail provider, rather than a regional integrated mass transit network. This thinking in a vacuum is problematic on many levels. What I'd be interested in seeing is how effective metropolitan planning organizations (MPO) are in managing public transportation operations and/or policy. Not many do, but I think it could be an interesting case study.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com