Interesting that someone should mention the sanity of the SEPTA board, in reference to BART.

In the mid eighties, BART hired the management losers that the SEPTA board had just dumped. Of course, the new BART CEO brought over all his loser cronies with him. Padded the top management at BART by several times over - what had been quite adequate before - in order to do it. And from what I hear, some of these guys are still around.

But the coup-de-gras was in giving away all the chess pieces to the unions. Whatever you or I might think of unions, it makes me chortle every time I think of it. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot! An incredibly stupid giving away of a strategic balance of power against a determined opponent.

In years past, BART could defeat the unions by keeping the trains running, replacing strikers with management types - all previously (and secretly) qualified to run the trains. But it seems these new "Philadelphia Lawyers" promised to grudge fire (R.I.F. actually) a few dozen middle managers, in a useless attempt to pacify BART's intractable craft unions.

Of course they weren't thinking (or didn't know) of how all those middle management pawns had been bustin' the unions. Worse yet (for management) - ALL those middle managers, realizing they were just being used as sacrificial pawns; as a group went and affiliated with the AFL-CIO. Now there was nobody to keep the trains running during a strike! This really hardened the union's strategic position.

The rest as they say - is history. We've had two economy strangling strikes since - both lost to the union, as they have all the cards. And still, the last I heard there is much antagonism in the ranks (it ain't really about money). They are somewhat subdued now only because of hard times.

So, to fracture a Will Rogers quote; the transfer of all those fellers from Philly to San Francisco, apparently raised the average IQ of both places!

OPB