To leftists the fact that its not being used is justification for more taxpayer funding.
We knew all this about the American public not using rail transporation in the 70’s. We learned the rail operations could never support themselves due to the lack of passengers. People don’t want to get mugged on American trains. And now we have to repeat it all over again?
Same with the one in Seattle/Tacoma.
It would have been far cheaper to buy each of those dozen people a Mercedes and a lifetime of free gas.
That's a lot of crumbling bridges and roads that could be fixed.
I fail to see why the federal government should be collecting any gas tax. With the Interstate Highway System completed, roads should be a state responsibility.
Yeah, So?
They have the best infrastructure, still......////sssss
Regardless of what information they have or where they got it; it is their own ideology that shapes how they view and use that information.
There is a rather nice light rail system here in Pittsburgh that people might actually use due to the scarcity of parking downtown.
But they don’t because it runs so seldom the cars are always packed like sardine cans. All the Port Authority’s cash goes to pay the pensions of drivers who retire at age 52, leaving nothing to actually operate a system they spent hundreds of millions to construct.
Mostly the last (their own personal beliefs about how people should travel). The surveys and computer models are used primarily to justify the personal beliefs.
Willie Greene would be sad.
Same story here in Seattle. And they are pushing more miles of it on us. Some areas are being taxed for it, who won’t see a track in their area until 2024
A survey of North American light rail projects shows that costs of most LRT systems range from $15 million per mile to over $100 million per mile. Seattle’s new light rail system is by far the most expensive in the U.S. at $179 million per mile, since it includes extensive tunneling in poor soil conditions, elevated sections, and stations as deep as 180 feet below ground level.
http://soundpolitics.com/archives/013562.html
Only $1.5 billion for 7.3 miles? How do they build things so cheap?
Our sick, twisted, foul, evil, corrupt, and degenerate political class love rail systems. When built with the idiotic taxpayers money raily systems provide a tangible object that upon which the politician can affix a sign exhibiting his name. For that little sign dear taxpayer sucker you pay billions. Plus the dollars going in the pockets of those politically related to its design, construction and operation are astronomical.
Our sick, twisted, foul, evil, corrupt, and degenerate political class love rail systems. When built with the idiotic taxpayers money raily systems provide a tangible object that upon which the politician can affix a sign exhibiting his name. For that little sign dear taxpayer sucker you pay billions. Plus the dollars going in the pockets of those politically related to its design, construction and operation are astronomical.
The biggest problem with urban mass transit systems is that they don’t go where people need and want them to go, they go where politicians want them to go or where politicians want people to go.
In Sacramento, for instance, they built light rail from low income neighborhoods to the downtown. Light rail notoriously does not connect to one single shopping mall in the region. Had they built it from the neighborhoods where most downtown workers live maybe it would do better, but the decision was based on politics and not on ridership.
What’s with all the rail haters on this site? It isn’t that you all hate subsidies because I’ve never seen anyone on FR whine about highways that are 100% supported by taxpayers. When is an Interstate highway held to the ‘self suifficient’ standard that rail is held to? What about airports? Even airports are massively subsidized by tax payers and I’ve never seen anyone whine about them.
The reason that rail projects end up being government run is because when private enterprise tries to do it - like they did in Texas - then they have to deal with airlines like Southwest suing them into the dirt so the airline doesn’t lose passengers. Only government can afford to fight off people who make billions off of short flights and highway congestion.
Is Willie Green still around here?
One way to look at the Obummer administration is that it is the first (historic!)to take over the top, ruinous ideas from localities around the country and attempt to apply them nationally. The pay per mile tax for driving originated in Oregon for instance, many years ago.
The attitude of the ruling class is astonishing in that although they get to tax and redistribute wealth, they actually despise those who have the ability to pay the taxes in the first place. How dare they make so much working for the private sector! Those evil bastards!
That is why many cities pulled up the streetcar rails back in the 50s and 60s. Now the Austin Silly Council is trying to add light rail from downtown to ABIA.
Of course it is.
And if these clowns would stop "studying" it, the ridership would be even lower.