Congress overwhelmingly backs 5-year transportation bill

Associated Press ^ | Dec. 3, 2015 9:06 PM EST | Joan Lowy

[Balding_Eagle]

BTW, thanks for such complete numbers.

[Olog-hai]

That sounds like the figure for New Jersey Transit’s Hudson-Bergen LRT system. Vast majority on pre-existing commuter/freight rail rights of way, that the NJDOT ended up canceling passenger service on in the late 1960s, too, to bring 17 miles of it back at hundreds of times the original cost.

[samadams2000]

This is where they all get paid.

[Rodamala]

Light rail is primarily designed to transfer money from taxpayers to crony capitalists, during pre-construction, construction, and especially post-construction.

I don't disagree there.

I work for a firm that designs both... and it boils my blood to see the pure waste and fraud of government entitlement programs. It seems like half the people in my office spend 90% of their time grant application writing to get "FREE MONEY" for projects that would otherwise only make sense to spend money on if there were a PROFIT MOTIVE, which there is not.

I tend to specialize on the other side... efficiently spending private capital to build and maintain sustainable infrastructure that can help to create real wealth. Old fashioned capitalism. There is real friction in my office at times...

[Olog-hai]

Funny thing is, they’ve redefined “streetcar” to be something separate from light rail, now. Something like the “Portland Streetcar” costs something like $10 million per mile, usually.