MATA on the verge of collapse?

The Commercial Appeal is reporting that MATA CEO Ron Garrison told a City Council Committee that our public transit system was about to break down

Garrison said to the City Council committee that MATA needs an additional $7 million in operating funds from the City of Memphis next fiscal year. Overall he said that MATA needs $30 million in operating funds and $5 million in capital funds to avoid cutting bus routes. 

"As we get these funds;" the head of MATA told the Commercial Appeal, "we can actually bring MATA back from the dead."

Ron Garrison pronounced his responsibility dead without offering his resignation. 

Additionally, MATA has said it is "planning" a return of the Trolleys to Memphis. The MATA plan however is costly without any date of success. Garrison said he'd like rail trolleys to run again here this spring but said "it's going to be much longer than that," noting it would be "foolhardy" to come up with a date for the trolleys' return.

At the same time MATA is foolhardily pursuing a multi-million dollar plan with no date of completion to return only half of the trolleys into service, the head of the system is begging for more money calling his responsibility collapsing and dead.