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Tri-Met chief Tom Walsh's announcement last week that he would resign marks the impending conclusion of his seven-year stint at the helm of the region's transit agency. Friday's coverage in The Oregonian treated the event in much the same way as the Tri-Met press release issued the day before. Both lauded Walsh for keeping the agency, in the words of our daily newspaper, "on track toward success." The reality is not quite so upbeat. Walsh, a Portland native who once ran for City Council, can point with pride to certain accomplishments. The completion of westside light rail stands at the top of the list. Although significant portions of the project failed to come in on budget or on time--despite claims to the contrary--Walsh cannot be blamed; no one could have predicted how difficult and expensive tunneling through the West Hills would become. Walsh should also be credited for the proposal to build a light-rail line to Portland International Airport, a plan that holds great promise. Tri-Met's chief deserves applause as well for his decision to purchase light-rail cars with low floors--the first transit agency in the nation to do so. This might not seem like a great accomplishment, but Walsh correctly understood how this alteration makes transit more accessible. Walsh also gets our praise for his support of a tight urban growth boundary and his commitment to the vital link between public transit and land-use planning in managing the growth of the metro area. Those achievements are tempered by one sobering truth: Tri-Met has failed at its core mission--ridership. Though our transit system carries more riders today than before Walsh took over, the numbers are hardly impressive--and they don't begin to approach Tri-Met's own projections. In 1993, Tri-Met said that by 1998 its system would carry 325,000 riders per weekday. Instead it carries fewer than 240,000--an embarrassing shortfall. Put in transit jargon, the "modal split" has been moving in the wrong direction since Walsh has been at Tri-Met. In other words, auto use has been growing far more quickly than transit use. Walsh and Tri-Met don't deserve all the blame for this development, but they certainly own a good piece of it. |
