Changes to MTA Structure, Plans

Re “Rail Projects Face Further Delays, MTA Board Told,” Aug. 15:

All stop! The entire structure of the MTA needs to be completely redone. Give the new leader from New York a break. Let him set up a complete new organization as he had in his hometown. Focus on one rail line at a time rather than multi-tasking into oblivion.

We the people deserve a first-class system and one that is not tied to political infighting. Those in charge don’t seem to understand that the money being thrown away is ours and we have enough waste already to last a lifetime.

JUDD WENNER

Los Angeles

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“No Mass Transit System Can Defy Society’s Trends” (editorial, Aug. 2), urging revision of the board of directors of the MTA, disregards the fundamental infirmity of the MTA: Placing the planning and programming functions for public transit under the same aegis of responsibility as bus and rail transit operations represents a sure-fire recipe for waste, logrolling and obliviousness to the same societal trends that you discuss. An inescapable conflict of decision-making occurs, because of the human impossibility of reposing power in one governing board both to plan and implement transit improvements and operate bus and rail services. Those directors who are enamored of the subway system will be biased toward spending precious tax dollars on rail extensions; those who recognize the indispensability of bus service (and they are outnumbered on the MTA board) will try to protect money for the bus operations.

Over $1 billion of state aid has been devoted to the MTA rail program. As a legislator unduly influenced by arguments of local control, I regretfully voted for legislation to merge the Southern California Rapid Transit District and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission. Observing the sorry state of affairs at MTA the past three years convinces me that only a separation of function as between planning and programming and transit operations can cure the decisional conflicts that undermine the MTA. Revising the board of directors is nothing but “rearranging the chairs on the Titanic.”

QUENTIN L. KOPP, Chairman

State Senate Transportation

Committee, I-San Francisco