I think this deserves a discussion in a separate thread.

In an interview with WTAW (starting around 4:15 of the interview), Mayor Bobby Gutierrez is asked about a trolley going from downtown Bryan to Midtown Bryan to Century Square to Texas A&M. He goes on to say, "College Station signed off on a letter of support for us and we got that thing allocated. We are waiting on BTD, Brazos Transit District, right now to get these things done, and then all of a sudden, we find out that, you know, I guess, basically Bryan Woods said "we're not going to do anything that helps the City of Bryan"."

When pushed as to where or when he said it. Gutierrez said it was a BTD meeting.
Wow. That is not good.

The whole plane crash scaring the cows debacle has really made me distrust anything Gutierrez says. That being said this statement is completely within character for Woods, for whatever reason, his history has shown he does not play well with others.

ANYTHING that the Brazos Transit District is involved in will be a taxpayer black hole, endless wasted tax $$$, for minimal benefits.
So far almost all elected officials still swoon at the prospect of "public transit", but whatever might work, BTD is NOT it.

Since I don't live in CS, i don't follow news on Woods so I can't say one way or another if this sounds like his MO. That being said, Gutierrez never passes a chance to throw someone under the bus. It's always someone else's fault. I like that WTAW asks him questions about hot Bryan topics like street repairs, how money is spent etc. I don't like how he ALWAYS defers and deflects about City of Bryan and the decisions that come from city hall on various matters. Oh, then there is always the plane/cow fiasco that paints him in a bad light.

Truth in this matter probably lays somewhere in between.

Did you mean throw them under a trolley?

The chance of success would be much greater if it were a monorail instead of trolley.

Joint cooperation for convention center- sorry now it is called multi use center - Bryan, college station, brazos county, Texas A&M. Hmmmm.

GSS said:

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ANYTHING that the Brazos Transit District is involved in will be a taxpayer black hole, endless wasted tax $$$, for minimal benefits.
So far almost all elected officials still swoon at the prospect of "public transit", but whatever might work, BTD is NOT it.

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I don't know man, I was driving down Texas earlier tonight and I saw a big green bus with A PASSENGER! First time I've ever seen anyone on board, things might be turning around! Just a few dozen more million dollars and they might grow into occasionally transporting multiple people all at once.

3 thoughts I take from this incident:
1 - How are the cities going to collaborate on a convention center / arena with this stuff going on in the background?
2 - No City Manager should be acting in this manner.
3 - No mayor should drop info like this as casually as it was dropped.

I think we are all one community except when it comes to government. Then we are further apart than Texas and California.

COCS government is a nightmare to deal with from everything I have heard

VAXMaster said:

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GSS said:

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ANYTHING that the Brazos Transit District is involved in will be a taxpayer black hole, endless wasted tax $$$, for minimal benefits.
So far almost all elected officials still swoon at the prospect of "public transit", but whatever might work, BTD is NOT it.

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I don't know man, I was driving down Texas earlier tonight and I saw a big green bus with A PASSENGER! First time I've ever seen anyone on board, things might be turning around! Just a few dozen more million dollars and they might grow into occasionally transporting multiple people all at once.

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I have often thought it might be cheaper to buy a nice used car for each passenger and just gift it to them. no string attached. "here you go! Thanks for trying to use BTD, but this free car is cheaper than for us to operate. tell your friends!"

The City Manager and staff were the ones who entered the NDA with the data center project.

tu ag said:

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I think this deserves a discussion in a separate thread.

In an interview with WTAW (starting around 4:15 of the interview), Mayor Bobby Gutierrez is asked about a trolley going from downtown Bryan to Midtown Bryan to Century Square to Texas A&M. He goes on to say, "College Station signed off on a letter of support for us and we got that thing allocated. We are waiting on BTD, Brazos Transit District, right now to get these things done, and then all of a sudden, we find out that, you know, I guess, basically Bryan Woods said "we're not going to do anything that helps the City of Bryan"."

When pushed as to where or when he said it. Gutierrez said it was a BTD meeting.
Wow. That is not good.

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Did Woods say that or was that what Gutierrez heard? When Gutierrez said the words "I guess" and "basically" then it tells us that this is not a direct quote from Woods. Sounds like the Mayor misunderstood or misinterpreted. In either case Gutierrez should never air his dirty laundry in public.

FYI it was unprofessional for WTAW to put the "we're not going to..." in quotations marks when even the Mayor did not say it was a direct quote.

Obligatory...

:/

Well, I personally took the Brazos Transit buses four times this week and each time there were five or more people on it. I have an eye condition that makes it difficult for me to drive at times during the year (triggered by stress and allergies).

Personally, I have heard a lot of complaints this year from A&M students about the lack of BTD buses on the weekend (and A&M buses on long weekends). With more parking lots getting converted to non-parking on campus, I think we need more public transit, not less. Dunno if a trolley would solve that, though...

metroid_84 said:

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:/

Well, I personally took the Brazos Transit buses four times this week and each time there were five or more people on it. I have an eye condition that makes it difficult for me to drive at times during the year (triggered by stress and allergies).

Personally, I have heard a lot of complaints this year from A&M students about the lack of BTD buses on the weekend (and A&M buses on long weekends). With more parking lots getting converted to non-parking on campus, I think we need more public transit, not less. Dunno if a trolley would solve that, though...

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Fair enough, I'm glad to hear a few people are getting some benefit from the extraordinary waste of tax payer funds that is BVT. Just the operating expenses are more than 10x fares collected, never mind capital costs. The A&M bus system is an example of good public transportation but BVT is a poster child for waste.

BTD report for 2022 (have not found a newer report) showed a 95% Federal and TX taxpayer subsidized operation, almost $6,000,000.00! A measley 5% of the budget was from fares. And now BTD has to procure local (Bryan, College Station, and Brazos county) tax $$$, $700,000.00+.
Indeed, a used car given to each rider would be much more cost efficient..(not advocating the used car route, just an absurd aternative solution, to an entrenched, enormous waste of tax $$).

The BTD buses service the poor people of Bryan (sometimes college station) and many communities outside the BCS and the Brazos valley (e.g. Nacogdoches). As such the federal and state governments should pay the lion's share of the costs.

https://www.btd.org/fixed-routes/schedules/

So, instead of giving every rider a car….

How about free Uber / Lyft fares?

VAXMaster said:

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GSS said:

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BTD report for 2022 (have not found a newer report) showed a 95% Federal and TX taxpayer subsidized operation, almost $6,000,000.00! A measley 5% of the budget was from fares. And now BTD has to procure local (Bryan, College Station, and Brazos county) tax $$$, $700,000.00+.
Indeed, a used car given to each rider would be much more cost efficient..

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2023 numbers for BTD from the DOT site:
Operations $10.2M
Labor $6.6M
Materials $1.5M
Other $1.5M

Revenue $833k

Tax Payer Subsidies $9.3M

Vehicle Assets: 125 vehicles.

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This is gross. Brazos county population is 250k so everyone pays $37 per year for this? And yes I know everyone probably doesn't pay so that ups the cost for others. Do away with it and come up with something else. How many other projects are like this across the county, city, state, and country. We are so over taxed for nothing.

The btd covers 1.5 million in population so costs are lower i cant find how many rides this provides…..
Why are the cities not in charge of this?

Could you post a link to the budget? How much does A&M and Blinn put in?

I'm curious because BTD gives all students and staff at A&M / Blinn free rides. You just flash your ID card at the drivers. I know at some point I was told the universities cover a sizeable chunk of the budget for BTD for this, but maybe its not so substantial anymore? I have never paid a fare myself (and most of the people I see on BTD buses aren't paying either, just showing their school ID cards).

Personally, I think BTD / A&M should integrate their bus systems further, as I think most students are not familiar with BTD. This would lead to more use of BTD and could take substantial pressure off the AggieSpirit buses, which even now are still often overloaded during peak times. This really could be as simple as listing BTD buses in the same bus tracker that students use.

To others, I'd point out BTD serves much more than BCS and much more than Brazos county. Much was covered by federal money, from what I recall, up until a few years ago, but Brazos county is no longer a 'rural' county by population, so those grants ended, and the expectation is that cities/counties will cover more of the BTD cost.