Posts Tagged ‘agency’

Caltrain Approves Fare Hike; Stops Four Midday Trains

Sunday, October 10th, 2010
Kris Alingod – AHN News Contributor

San Francisco, CA, United States (AHN) – California’s commuter train service, Caltrain, has approved a proposal to raise fares and cut service to address a $2.3 million budget shortfall.

The rail service’s board of directors voted Thursday to charge 25 cents more for each zone. The increase means a rider traveling from San Francisco to Atherton stations will pay $6.50 instead of $6.00. Caltrain has six zones beginning in San Francisco and ending in Gilroy.

The price of the annual Go Pass will be $155, up from $140.

The board also decided to stop midday trains 236, 237, 256 and 257. The four trains ply the San Francisco-San Jose route.

The changes take effect on Jan. 1.

Caltrain expects to earn an additional $1.4 million from the zone fare hike, and $150,000 from the Go Pass increase.

The agency has received more than 1,500 comments from riders during a month-long public comment period. Some groups had put forth formal proposals, such as the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.

Caltrain had been considering more cuts but decided against reducing weekday early morning and evening service since many commuters would be left without a means to get to work.

Agency executive director Michael Scanlon made clear last month the changes would be the first of many because of a projected budget deficit of nearly $30 million in fiscal year 2012.

“These will be the good old days compared to what we will face in July,” Scanlon had said.

Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved

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Postal Service Denied 2 Cent Rate Hike

Friday, October 1st, 2010
Kris Alingod – AHN News Contributor

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Burdened by a weak economy and the use of electronic communications, the Postal Service is studying options to keep itself viable after its request for a 2 cent increase in rates was denied.

The agency wanted to raise the price of first class mail to 46 cents, and that of postcards to 30 cents by next year. The Postal Regulatory Commission, however, unanimously ruled Thursday against a rate hike, saying there were no exigent circumstances to justify it.

The Postal Service has the power, under a 2006 law, to implement rate increases higher than the annual cap but only during exigent situations such as a natural disaster or terror attack.

“The Postal Service’s cash flow problem is not a result of the recession and would have occurred whether or not the recession took place. lt is the result of other, unrelated structural problems and the proposed exigent rate adjustments would neither solve nor delay those problems,” the commission said.

The author of the 2006 law, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), had opposed the request for a price increase.

“In addition to not meeting the criteria set forth in the law, the exigent rate case is simply a bad business decision,” she said in a statement. “Rather than help restore postal solvency, an exigent rate increase will worsen the Postal Service’s crisis by further driving down mail volumes and thus revenues.”

The Postal Service expects a budget gap of about $7 billion next year despite cost cutting measures worth $10 billion in the last three years.

The agency receives no federal funds for its operations and depends only on revenues from postage and other services. It wants Congress to restructure its $5.5 billion annual payment to the Retiree Health Benefit Fund, an obligation it said it was able to pay for this fiscal year.

“The financial risk remains,” said postmaster general John Potter. “We will carefully manage every dollar we spend in the upcoming fiscal year. Our current forecast shows that we will not have sufficient cash to make the $5.5 billion payment due on Sept. 30, 2011.”

Article © AHN – All Rights Reserved

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Unsecured Debt Consolidation Loans – Free Related Tip

Saturday, September 4th, 2010

It’s difficult to provide accurate Unsecured Debt Consolidation Loans information, but we have gone through the rigor of putting together as much Unsecured Debt Consolidation Loans related information as possible. Even if you are searching for other information somehow related to How To Get Money, Restaurant Loan, Home Loans With Bad Credit or Online Unsecured Loans Co UK this article should help a great deal.

If you are interested in an unsecured loan there are a number of issues to explore before applying. The first and most important step is knowing how bad your credit score is. The easiest way to get your credit score is to go to a credit agency. However, there are banks and mortgage companies which offer their customers a free yearly credit report – all you have to do is ask.

Lenders in the UK usually lend unsecured bad credit loans ranging from a minimum of $500 to a maximum of $25,000. Unsecured bad credit loans usually bear a high rate of interest, as the loan is not backed by any property. Lenders try to cover his cost of lending by charging a higher rate of interest, but you may get an opportunity to borrow loan at a lower rate of interest if you do a bit of search.

With the rising needs and demands of the people, unsecured loan has come to the lime light. It supports you financially when you are suffering from extreme financial hardships, and it becomes a Herculean task to meet your various requirements. Unsecured loan does not require any form of security from the borrower.

Unlike many people out there, don’t forget that even if this article related to Unsecured Debt Consolidation Loans doesn’t cover all the basics you wanted, you can always take a look at any of the search engines like Google.com or Search.Yahoo.com for more Unsecured Debt Consolidation Loans related information.

Usually, the amounts disbursed as unsecured debt consolidation loans are lower than what would have been if the debt consolidation loan was secured. Wells Fargo Financial, for example, offers its customers home equity lines of credit for debt consolidation starting at $10,000, whereas unsecured personal loans for debt consolidation at capped at $10,000. So unsecured debt consolidation loans are essentially for those individuals who carry lower credit card debt, but still want to consolidate it and eliminate it completely.

If you don’t think that unsecured debt consolidation loans are going to be right for you, another option may be a credit counseling agency. While they don’t consolidate your debt like a loan will, they will often be able to work out lower payments and interest rates for many of your debts. You will make one payment to the credit agency, which will, in turn, pay your debts for you. They won’t hurt your credit, but you will want to research well before you using a credit counseling agency to insure that they will pay your bills on time. If they are late, it will show up that you are late and then hurt your credit or debt further.

Debts keep on adding to themselves through interest. The larger is the time that the loan provider takes in approving loan and thus in debt settlement, the larger will the additions to debt be. Through an unsecured debt consolidation loan, borrower can safeguard himself from these unduly additions to debt. Since property valuation is not involved in unsecured debt consolidation loans, they are faster in being approved.

Many people looking for information about Unsecured Debt Consolidation Loans also looked online for Business Loan Calculator, Loans For Bad Credit, and even Bad Credit Auto Loan Refinance.

Author: Deepak Kulkarni
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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