Still can't get there from here

Well this didn't take long.  Pretty much as soon as RTA announces it has a plan to extend one bus line a little bit of the way into Jefferson Parish, the JET people are mad.

The head of Jefferson Parish’s public transit system says she was kept in the dark about plans to run another New Orleans bus line into the suburban parish next year — a move that she says will hurt her system’s profits.

Sharon Leader, the director of Jefferson Transit, said this week that while she knew the idea was being considered, she had no idea the Regional Transit Authority intended to go forward with the new route in 2019.

RTA officials recently announced they plan to extend the South Claiborne Avenue line to Ochsner Medical Center on Jefferson Highway, a move aimed at giving hundreds of riders a more convenient way to get to work or their doctor.

“I knew nothing about this,” Leader said. “And I’m about as regional as they come, but you don’t push things on people without telling them.”

"Profits" is a funny word in there.  I wonder if that's Leader's choice or if it came from the Advocate. Profit isn't really the concern of a public transit service.  Maybe she just means revenue.  Even so, it's another indicator that these problems aren't going to be solved until the whole "Regional" aspect of these systems is better integrated.