Rhode Island is having a different kind of problem.
<http://www.projo.com/news/content/RIPTA_CUTS_07-07-08_83AOJGD_v17.43a537c.html>
PROVIDENCE — Short of money and expecting continued deterioration of its finances, the state's transit system is considering a broad cut in service just as high gasoline prices are pushing people out of their cars and onto buses.
The service cuts, which would go into effect in December, would eliminate or reduce service on more than 160 bus lines or sections of lines to save $9.7 million per year, and Rhode Island Public Transit Authority officials say that more cuts are likely to cover growing budget deficits. The cuts described are already large, amounting to about 10 percent of the authority's budget for next year.
The apparently bizarre situation — the prospect of cutting bus service just when increasing ridership and rising gasoline prices suggest that more service is needed — grows out of the way the authority is financed. It relies heavily on revenue from the state gasoline tax. But as people buy less gas, that revenue stream is dropping at the same time the authority is suffering from a dramatic run-up in one of its biggest expenses, diesel fuel.
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-- Andy