METRA Did What Now?
We're listening to WBBM 780 and METRA, the best run of all the mass transit organizations (which we guess is like being the tallest midget in the circus) is complaining about lack of money for "capital improvements." The money it seems is tied up in another Blago disaster in Springfield. So METRA does what a responsible company does and starts looking for deals.
So far so good. The search people find 5 used train cars in West Virginia. The trouble is that these are the same 5 train cars METRA sold a few years back as being too outdated to maintain and use on the local rails. And get this...
METRA sold them to the West Virginia people for one dollar a piece. The buy back price? $10,000 per car PLUS $100,000 to refurbish each. Un-freaking-believable. That entire $550,000 ought to come out of the METRA Board salaries. Minus the $5 METRA got a couple years back of course.
Why do we have the feeling that if someone did a little digging, they'd find some distant second cousin of some Illinois politician living in West Virginia who deals in used rail bars?
So far so good. The search people find 5 used train cars in West Virginia. The trouble is that these are the same 5 train cars METRA sold a few years back as being too outdated to maintain and use on the local rails. And get this...
METRA sold them to the West Virginia people for one dollar a piece. The buy back price? $10,000 per car PLUS $100,000 to refurbish each. Un-freaking-believable. That entire $550,000 ought to come out of the METRA Board salaries. Minus the $5 METRA got a couple years back of course.
Why do we have the feeling that if someone did a little digging, they'd find some distant second cousin of some Illinois politician living in West Virginia who deals in used rail bars?
Labels: scandals
posted by SCC at 12:03 AM
15 Comments:
PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO THE ILLINOIS ATTORNEY GENERAL! IN THESE TIMES THEY WOULD BE FORCED TO LOOK INTO THIS! AND THE NEWS WOULD LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT THIS! IF NO ONE ELSE WILL I AM GOING TO CONTACT THE NEWS MEDIA CUZ THATS THE KIND OF PRICK I AM!!
I've got to stop reading this blog. I'm literally aggravated all the time now.
It just keeps getting worse and worse. There was a time politicians used to be afraid of taxpayers. They knew people better get the best bang for their buck. Now we just get banged. And nobody stops it.
Just don't buck while you're getting banged.
Thanks
Richie & the Alderfucks
Now see here.
We aretired about all the complaining about the CTA and Metra. We, the owners of the Flim Flam Bus and Rail Carl Co, object.
Sincerely; Rufus Stroger
Stanley Blagojevich
Irving Daley
Tony Rezko
Pookie Obama
sounds like Stroger runs METRA
These are reasonable managment decisions that the average cop, who can't balance his own checkbook, has no business commenting on. The refurbishing would have cost the same. The $10,000 each is negligable. It would have cost as much to properly prep and store.
Stick to bitching about police work.
the criminal minds of daley-blago and stroger what ateam of idiots, all above the law and if osama obama gets in daley will be free as he always is to lie,cheat and steal!
CUZ THATS THE KIND OF PRICK I AM!!
5/11/2008 02:29:00 AM
You sound like a real stand up type of guy there cowboy! Maybe we can meet in the apt. above TR's?
they must be corrupt.
no one is that stupid !!!
Taxpayers,like FOP members, will tsk tsk and bitch and moan but will not due anything about it but take it. They will say ,"someone should write in about that" or "Somebody should do something about that" and no one does and the powers that be just laugh and laugh at the chumps.
I heard that same news report. I sat there shaking my head, thinking surely that can't be true. These thieves should be in prison for all the misfeasance and malfeasance and outright theft.
Cmon, is that the best we've got on them? Hardly.
Rail cars are getting harder to find. We shut down making a lot of them years ago, especially bilevel passenger cars, and let Canadians make them. Many of the cars being pulled on Metra today are older than the riders, and were bought by railroads that no longer exist today. Many of Metra's engines date back to the 70s.
But as we see gas prices go up, you will see many cities fight for them in nearly any condition. There aren't many used-passenger car dealers. Most were scrapped when sold. To bring any them up to present DOT standards would have still cost a lot, whether Metra sold them or stored them.
So it cost a bit to get five. Watch how much it will cost to get more, especially if you have to buy new.
Let's instead focus on why there isn't a CPD contract, why instead of actual support, only words come down the line. There's support for veterans, and I am one, but let's see support for all our defenders.
Buy the cars back and fill em up with senior citizens who ride for free.
Illinois, Cook County and Chicago...run by a bunch of retards
That sounds like something that Little Fuckin' Todd would do.
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