[BfloGuy]

More and more rail transit projects are being proposed and funded by Washington, but they are destined to fail because the consumer doesn't want them. Sounds a lot like nationalized health care doesn't it?

Rail advocates are quick to complain that the government subsidizes roads and airports, but at least people use those. In fact, they flock to them. Passenger rail just loses money -- tons of it.

[cripplecreek]

Detroit-Ann Arbor rail line project delayed due to funding shortage.

http://www.annarbor.com/news/ann-arbor-to-detroit-rail-line-delayed/

[muawiyah]

There are areas where there are enough customers and dense enough populations that railroads continue to make technological sense.

For the most part those areas are NOT in the United States.

[Mr. K]

BUT THEY WILL DO BETTER ON HEALTH CARE!!!

[SoCal Pubbie]

Paging Mr. Green, Mr. Willie Green, please come to the red courtesy Bat Phone.

[RC2]

“government subsidizes roads and airports” for one purpose. That purpose is to support the military, not the general public.

[kevkrom]

Here’s my problem with commuter rail... I live in the DC area, on the Maryland side, and work in Arlignton county in Virginia.

In order to get to work, I would have to drive or take a bus some 8-10 miles to the nearest Metro station, take the train downtown, switch to another line, and then walk a few blocks to my destination.

That last part isn’t a hassle, but the rest of it is. By the time I deal with driving to the Metro station, I’m through the worst half of my commute in (and going into the worst half of my commute home), I have to pay for parking, and the whole trip takes my roughly 75-80 minutes each way (as opposed to the 45-50 minute average of direct driving at off-peak times).

If I take a bus to the Metro station, it simply adds extra time, though bus fare would be cheaper than Metro parking.

If I could enter “the system” within a few blocks walk of origin and destination AND take less than hour to get from point A to point B, I’d be doing it. But I can’t, and therefore I’m still driving 30 miles each way.

[Alberta's Child]

As a civil engineer who specializes in transportation systems I can see the value of mass transit when the conditions are right for it, but there are a lot of problems with the way rail transit systems in particular are built and operated in most metro areas.

The biggest problem is that the cost of acquiring land and building a system from the ground up makes almost any rail transit system cost-prohibitive. Add in the limited passenger capacity even in the most heavily-utilized systems due to signal system specifications, safety requirements, minimum train spacing, etc.

I'm kind of surprised that rail transit is getting a lot of attention at all these days. Over the last couple of years a lot of transit agencies have come to recognize that a well-operated bus system -- including bus rapid transit (BRT) routes that could be as ambitious as a fully grade-separated or barrier-separated busway alignment -- is far more cost-effective when it comes to moving large numbers of people along defined transportation corridors.

[tcrlaf]

The Vermont Train was called the “Champaign Flyer”. TENS OF MILLIONS of tax dollars were spent to refurb the cars that came from the Virginia Commuter Rail, and now they sit rusting, outside of Guelph, Ontario.

[meadsjn]

The audit found the rail line’s capital costs were more than twice the projected amounts; the operating costs were nearly three times projections; the trains carried less than half of the projected riders; and fare revenues were less than a third of projections. The audit also found that the environmental benefits of the project were nil: the diesel locomotives powering the trains used more energy and emitted more pollution than the cars the transit service took off the road. The legislature cancelled the train.

Obviously, a few lucky people benefitted financially from the project, and a few other lucky people got their enviro-whacko warm fuzzies from the project. Taxpayers got ripped off as usual, as they have learned to enjoy. Everybody's happy.

For the train project, Cato Institute clearly points out the obvious reality versus the false-advertised benefits.

Why can't Cato Institute display the same grasp of reality, and tell the truth about how the anti-American manipulated global trade deals, the offshore outsourcing, the importing of visa workers, and the open borders invasion of illegals, have brought our economy to collapse, because of free and cheap labor, not in spite of it?

[southernnorthcarolina]

We in the "other" Charlotte (NC) have the beginning of a commuter rail system. Predictably, it's a joke -- a very bad one at the expense of taxpayers.

The strategy among the train boosters was one of incrementalism. Built one line, no matter how puny, and, golly gee whiz, we can't stop there, can we? Once we've started down the track, so to speak, we have to keep going. In Charlotte, NC's case, the South Line is up and running -- all 9 miles of it, with station platforms long enough to accommodate trains of -- wait for it -- two cars.

The South Line runs from downtown toward the south (at least they figured out what to name the line) but stops short of the I-485 loop, and is therefore useless for suburbanites. More importantly, though the clamor is on for more lines into downtown, there is no central station, and no plans for any interface between the lines.

But the biggest problem is one inherent to all rail systems: the rails are fixed. Trains are really good at taking people from where they're not to where they don't want to go. Bus routes can be changed as residential areas and employment centers pop up in different locations; train routes, not so much.

I realize that huge cities like New York, London, and Tokyo need rail transit. Charlotte, NC and Charlotte, VT do not.

[sportutegrl]

There is a solution to the passenger rail ‘problem’: privatize it all. (read Atlas Shrugged if you have questions.) i believe that there is a real demand for quality, fast rail travel post 9/11. The problem is the government.