Political Quotes

“Finally, although we are not yet discussing the transit title, let me say a few words about public transportation. Las Vegas is the fastest growing city in the Nation. There is some debate as to whether it is Las Vegas or the suburb of Henderson, where I graduated from high school. But that area of the country is growing extremely rapidly, as I have already explained. Yet before 1992, it had, at best, a very weak mass transit system. In 1992, the Citizens Area Transit--we call it CAT--owned by the Regional Transportation Commission, and operated on a contract basis, began a fixed-route bus system for Las Vegas. The response has been tremendous. The Las Vegas community has truly embraced CAT. In less than 5 years, ridership on CAT has grown from 14.9 million annual riders to over 35 million in 1996, a total ridership growth of 134 percent, and going up each day. The fare box recovery ratio is high. Most of the system's costs are recovered without requiring a huge subsidy. The bus fleet is 100-percent compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act. So impressive has been CAT's ability to grow efficiently and effectively, that the American Public Transit Association last year awarded its Outstanding Achievement Award to CAT in the hardest-to-win midsized system category. This is a tremendous feat for such a young system. After all, Mr. President, this system does not rely on much in the way of Federal funds.…”