Chris Colfer Book Signing in Downtown Disney at Disneyland Resort

disneyparks.disney.go.com

We are excited to welcome #1 New York Times bestselling author, Golden Globe winner, and huge Disney fan, Chris Colfer to World of Disney Store as we celebrate the release of his second book, The Land of Stories: The Enchantress Returns.

Best known for his role as Kurt Hummel on “Glee,” Colfer will be joining us October 12, 2013 from 2 – 4p.m. in the Downtown Disney District, to sign copies of his bestselling series.

www.theatlantic.com

New Yorkers are famous for complaining about the city’s subway: despite an ever-increasing rise in fares, service never seems to get any better. And even still, ticket-sales still only funds part of the New York City subway system; the city still relies on supplementary taxes and government grants to keep trains running, as fares only cover about 45 percent of the day-to-day operating costs. Capital costs (system expansions, upgrades, and repairs) are an entirely different question, and require more state and federal grants as well as capital market bonds. And New York’s system is not unique: as in other cities, New York struggles to pay existing expenses and must go into debt to pay for upgrades, that is, without raising prices.

Is this problem intractable? Not exactly. Take Hong Kong for example: The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) Corporation, which manages the subway and bus systems on Hong Kong Island and, since 2006, in the northern part of Kowloon, is considered the gold standard for transit management worldwide. In 2012, the MTR produced revenue of 36 billion Hong Kong Dollars (about U.S $5 billion)—turning a profit of $2 billion in the process. Most impressively, the farebox recovery ratio (the percentage of operational costs covered by fares) for the system was 185 percent, the world’s highest. Worldwide, these numbers are practically unheard of—the next highest urban ratio, Singapore, is a mere 125 percent.

Read more. [Image: Paul Yeung/Reuters]