Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
In a few days, I've got an important meeting somewhere in the country. On that day, almost all public transport, in the entire country, will be down due to strikes. A judge has decided today that the strikes will be allowed to take place.
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Out of curiousity, what are they striking
about? (At a guess, working hours and money.)
(If I were you, I'd reschedule that meeting now, since you would have problems getting to it.)
Quote:
****@$%@^38#%^. And the government STILL can't figure out why NOBODY in the entire $%^@^@%^ country travels by public transport WILLINGLY?
There are only 4 types of people in public transport in the Netherlands:
- Students, who don't have the money/required age to drive a car
- Old people, if they can't / aren't allowed to drive any longer
- People who cannot drive a car because of medical reasons (like me: poor vision)
- People for whom public transport actually IS convenient, to and from work (a small percentage in the big cities).
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I consider myself lucky. New York City has comprehensive 24/7 public transport. There are subways and buses in NYC itself, and commuter rail lines to points outside the city proper. I can get pretty much anywhere, at almost any time. I don't need (or want) to own a car.
Labor issues between unions and the transit authority overall responsible haven't been a problem in decades. The bigger issues are funding. Like any other such effort, it's simply not possible to charge enough for a fare to cover the costs of transporting the passenger. The MTA must get state and federal subsidies, and especially needs subsidies to cover capital costs for new construction and renovation and repair of older stations and track, as well as purchases of rolling stock.
Federal funding isn't normally a problem, but the relationship between New York City and New York State is often contentious. State government politics can be described as "New York City tries to get state funds comparable to the amount of state taxes it pays. The rest of the state tries to keep that from happening." NYC politicians elected to state government slots discover the political dividing line isn't Democrat vs Republican - it's upstate vs downstate.
There was a city political campaign decades ago, where novelist Norman Mailer and newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin were running for Mayor and City Council head, respectively, with the slogan "Let the rascals
in!". Part of their platform was a pledge to try to secede NYC from the rest of the state, and have it a separate political entity. That would have been fascinating, had they gotten into office and tried it.
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Dennis