2019 Employee Earnings
Presumably, the last 50ish people washed out of training.
Campus Buses Running in Circles: Overuse of Free Public
Good
MTD and UIUC provide free bus service between UIUC dorms and buildings where classes are held. Since students are entitled to unlimited rides, they overuse the service. It is not uncommon for students to ride the bus for as little as block or two when they could easily walk.
Overuse is a common problem with free public goods. The phenomenon is sometimes referred to as The Tragedy of the Commons, where The Commons refers to public grazing grounds.
Campus Buses Running in Circles: What Ever Happened to
Walking?
For decades, UIUC students walked from their dorms to class buildings. Now, they ride buses. Do healthy teens and 20-somethings really need buses to carry them 5 or so blocks to class? Is this something taxpayers want to foot the bill for? What benefits accrue to taxpayers as a result of MTD carrying students short distances during daylight hours??
Also, operating buses to carry healthy young adults to class is a waste of resources with potential to exacerbate an already-serious public health problem: Obesity. The State of Illinois is spending money to run buses for students who could easily walk to class and at the same time spending money to combat obesity. Weird.
The Myth of High MTD Ridership
The MTD likes to brag about its ridership. They say things like, 'We have more riders than Indianapolis', 'We have 10 million annual riders', and so forth. But their numbers are misleading. Indianapolis does not have an armada of free buses running in circles in downtown Indianapolis. If they did, their ridership would be many times what it currently is. If Champaign did not have an armada of free buses running in circles on campus, carrying riders on trips as short as a block, MTD ridership would likely be less than 10% of what they claim.
Furthermore, a significant portion of MTD ridership is UIUC parking lot and employee shuttles, which used to be operated by UIUC. That ridership hardly constitutes legitimate mass transit ridership.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that MTD is something special based on its ridership figures. The numbers are completely misleading.
MTD Charter Operations Declared Illegal by Federal Transit
Administration
Complaint
Cease and Desist
Letter from FTA
MTD's Arrogant,
Non-Responsive Response
FTA Ruling against
MTD
Appeal Against
IVCF Portion of FTA Ruling
March 2006: FTA Witholds $622,000 in Funding to Akron for Violations Simiar to MTD Violations
April 2006: New FTA compliant re: Continuing
MTD Charter Violations
MTD Air Bus: What to think??
Recent MTD Correspondence & Agreements
Recent MTD Invoices
to UIUC - Includes Ridership #'s
Discussion (last updated 2/7/06)
Somewhat Related: FOIA Suit Against UIUC
Like MTD, UIUC seems to prefer to slink around below the radar...
FOIA Lawsuit
NEW August 2007
FTA Complaint Against CUMTD and Quad Cities Metrolink for Charter Service Rule Violations
Metrolink/MTD Golf Shuttle Complaint
FTA Queries
Metrolink Response to Complaint/FTA Queries
Allerton Response to FTA Queries
FTA Decision
Appeal of FTA Decision
Metrolink lied in their response. They claimed that parking fees were being collected *per passenger*. In reality, parking fees were being collected per vehicle.
Their lie was sufficient to defuse the complaint. But they were smart enough to know they were violating
Federal law. In following years, they employed school buses instead of Federally-funded transit buses.