BusTalk

[sjd0356]

http://wbztv.com/local/worcester.bus.drivers.2.1886158.html

[massbusmark]

WRTA management has announced they will impose it's "last best offer" next Saturday. ATU Local 22 said they will go on strike if the offer is imposed, according to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette:

http://www.telegram.com/article/20101106/NEWS/11060329/1116

If there is a strike, it will be the third one in 16 years.

Mark

[massbusmark]

It appears the WRTA drivers are going on strike as of 11PM Friday night, a 2 hour meeting today with ATU Local 22 & RTA management produced no agreement, it appears the RTA imposed the last best offer.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20101111/NEWS/101119932/1116

Mark

[massbusmark]

There will be no strike tonight, as Worcester's City Manager asked WRTA management to provide a 15 day cooling off period. Management will not impose the last best offer, WRTA drivers have agreed to the cooling off period and both sides will sit down with a federal mediator to try and hash out their differences. Notice on the WRTA website:

http://www.therta.com/news/news2010_111210.htm

Mark

[RailBus63]

Long-term, somebody needs to do something about the culture surrounding the WRTA. I don't know if its on the worker's side, management's side or both, and I don't really care. This business of constant strike threats has really hurt public transportation in Worcester County. WRTA ridership dropped by 34 percent from 1996 to 2008 (National Transit Database). According to MassDOT's 'RTA Scorecard', WRTA has the second-highest service area population (right behind leader PVTA) but the lowest per-capita ridership of the state's major RTA's, and the agency's fixed-route operating expense per mile and per hour are the highest of any of the Massachusetts RTA's (http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/main/Documents/RTAScorecardDec09.pdf).

At the going rate, and especially given the ongoing financial crisis in Massachusetts and the commonwealth's historic short-changing of the regional transit authorities, it's probably only a matter of time before WRTA loses what little evening and Sunday service is left. But, hey, they just got funding for a new 'green' bus garage, so they've got that going for them. Maybe they should include a few lifts in there for 30-foot buses that are probably an inevitability.

[HwyHaulier]

[RailBus63]

Vern, I'm not close enough to the situation so I can't say whether management, the union or both are responsible for WRTA's decline. Whoever is at fault, the fact that they have caused multiple strikes over the years (including a 66-day strike in 2004) has undoubtedly driven away most discretionary riders from the system.

[HwyHaulier]

[Mr. Linsky]

What is it that Hannibal Smith (George Peppard) used to say on TV's 'The A Team'? - "I love it when a plan comes together!"

I just came across the attachment on eBay but then realized that way back when I did do a piece on Worcester so we'll call this an update and certainly apropos to this thread;

Pictured is fleet number 641 - a 1945 Mack Model C-41-GT and one of seventy (601 to 670) delivered to Worcester Street Railway Company between 1945 and 1947.

The company's main service area began in 1901 as trunk trolley lines between Worcester and Boston and involved many different flags through the years including Boston, Worcester and New York Street Railway Company.

In 1974, all operations were taken over by the Worcester Regional Transit Authority (WRTA).

Photo courtesy of the Mack Truck Museum.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York

[HwyHaulier]

Mr 'L' -

Alas! The MACK coaches date to a simpler time. On the current site, a statement the entire operation runs with a fleet of 48 buses.
http://www.therta.com/index.html

.......................Vern.................

[massbusmark]

Found this article on line from Worcester Magazine, reporting the WRTA had a balanced budget for FY '10 (first time in years), ridership is up 8 percent since 2007, still nowhere near the numbers of 10 or 20 years ago. But the WRTA ranks low in areas of efficiency, as RailBus 63 indicated in his reply. Link to article:

http://www.worcestermag.com/city-desk/top-news/The-wheels-on-the-bus-company-108751634.html

Also of note: among the 15 new Gillig low floors received thus far, a few (3 or 4 maybe) are 30 footers. At one time a few years back they were using 16 passenger cutaway mini buses for low ridership routes.

I recall seeing on line some years back a report that, according to how the driver's contract was written, a driver could rake in lots of time and a half. IIRC it said that drivers who signed up for "extra board" would go start a piece of work if the driver normally assigned to that work called in sick. The dispatcher would then start calling drivers who had a scheduled day off or it it was later in the morning or afternoon would radio drivers finishing up their regular shift, and asked if they wanted to work OT. If a called driver came in, he/she would be sent to finish the piece the extra board driver had started. The extra board driver then returned to the barn and went back to sitting around until the end of his/her shift, or would go start another piece if another driver called in sick. The extra board driver would be paid time and a half for the whole piece he/she started, even though they were relieved by the driver called in and only drove part of said run. The driver relieving the extra board driver got OT pay for the whole piece, and the extra board driver made 8 hours pay on top of any OT pay. I believe WRTA management had that struck from the contract as it certainly drained the budget. If I could find that report on line again I'll post a link.

Mark

[HwyHaulier]

Mark -

It remains bewildering how a fleet of just under fifty units presents difficult management issues and problems...

The Worcester Magazine item is curious in its own way. Quite a bit of imaginative and creative use of language.
Example, "solvent" is what they say it is. It doesn't fit older, classic definitions? Or is "up", "down" in current lexicon?

.....................Vern.....................

[massbusmark]

According to the WRTA website and TV news reports, ATU 22 members have agreed to a 2 year contract, a 1 percent raise in the first year (retroactive to July 1st) and a 1.5 percent rise the second year. Employee health care contribution will remain 13 percent till July 2011, when it will increase to 20 percent, going up to 25 percent in July 2012. Union members will also get a $1,000 signing bonus and a $1.2 million contribution to the company's pension plan. A union representative told reporters he's not happy with the contract, but union members voted to accept it at a special meeting Friday night so riders would not be deprived of bus service.

Mark

[RailBus63]

I'm glad cooler heads prevailed - it seems like a fair deal for both sides given the current economic and fiscal conditions.