Posted on 07/25/2015 10:44:48 AM PDT by Kaslin
You know our country is in serious financial trouble when lawmakers are considering selling a portion of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in order to partially replenish the U.S. highway trust fund. Yet, the apparent financial distress doesn't stop the Department of Transportation from continuing to hand out millions of federal matching funds to entice local governments to either expand or build light rails under its "New Starts" program.
Several U.S. cities jumped on the fed induced light rail frenzy. The latest example is Lone Tree, Colorado, a picturesque small town with a population of 13,267. The Lone Tree city council just approved an expansion of the Southeast light rail line for 2.3 miles, with an estimated initial capital cost of $207 million. That is almost $90 million per mile! The national average is well over $100 million per mile. Since government bureaucracy historically has underestimated initial capital cost of construction, we can expect the final actual cost for Lone Tree's 2.3 mile rail extension will be way higher than $207 million. Exhibit A is the West Rail Line in Denver, with a price tag of $707 million, costing more than twice the initial cost estimate of $350 million. Light rails are not only expensive to build, but cost even more to maintain. Are there tremendous benefits to justify this kind of astronomic cost? The answer is "no!"
Unlike the movie "Field of Dreams," just because light rails are built, doesn't mean people will come. Actual ridership of light rails is consistently much lower than bureaucrats’ overly optimistic estimates. The Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD) projected that the West Rail Line would carry 29,000 people each week in its first year of operation. Yet, the actual ridership was only about one third of that projection. Even this was only achieved by the RTD cutting off six bus lines so people were forced to take the light rail. After so many long term bus riders’ (many from low income families) complaints, RTD was forced to resume those bus lines. So nowadays, the West Rail Line runs pretty empty. Lack of ridership is not a regional issue, but a national phenomenon. Cities such as Portland, Dallas and St. Louis, which have the most highly regarded light rail systems in the nation, carry fewer than 2,000 riders per peak hour in the peak direction.
Fewer riders of light rail means more people remain on the road. Therefore, light rails are not as effective in terms of reducing traffic congestion, as the city planners had hoped. As a matter of fact, studies from the Cato Institute show that a bus line is a much more cost-effective alternative than a light rail.
Why don’t more people take light rails? Light rails' limited schedules and destinations are simply not appealing to many of us. We the people prefer to have the freedom to drive ourselves to wherever we want to be, whenever we want to. For those who don't own a car or prefer not to drive, the free market has already offered many choices. Want to go somewhere? All you have to do is to click an app on your smart phone, and an Uber driver will pick you up in 3 minutes or less.
"Light" rails represent a heavy financial burden to taxpayers. They are a waste of taxpayers’ hard earned money. They are nothing but a form of welfare: in Denver, a one-way light rail ticket costs $4.20, even though the actual cost is about $22.00. The Regional Transportation District (RTD), Denver's light rail operator, has never recouped its costs, has never made money and never will. Had it been a private enterprise, it would have had to shut its doors a long time ago.
But why do city officials, like Jim Gunning, Mayor of Lone Tree, ignore the historical track record of light rails and so eagerly embrace another expensive light rail project which will cost taxpayers $207 million? Among the reasons the mayor gave: first, $92 million out of the $207 million will come from the Department of Transportation's "new starts" grants. So it is "free" money. In the mayor's own words, "if we don't take this free money, other cities will." I am not surprised that politicians like to spend other people's money, especially if they themselves do not have to raise it. But the mayor should have known, whether the money is supposedly from the federal government or the local government, it ultimately comes down to taxpayers like you and me, who not only have to cover the upfront capital costs but also the costs of long-term maintenance.
The second reason Gunning gave was more bizarre. He declared that since Portland, Dallas and several other cities are building light rails too, it must be a good idea. I remembered when I was growing up, I once asked my mother if I could buy something because all my friends had it. My mother always said, "If everyone else jumps off the cliff, will you follow them too? A stupid act is a stupid act, no matter how many people are doing it." I wish my mother was at the Lone Tree city council meeting so she could tell the mayor.
Fortunately, not all politicians think like Gunning. Councilwoman Kim Monson voted no on the light rail expansion project. Unfortunately, her lonely voice of conscience was overruled by other politicians who are eager to jump off the fiscal cliff, and taking every one of us with them!
Yep, and sadly to say some FReepers praise toll roads because there just isn’t enough money for highways any longer.
Folks, wake the hell up.
I understand they are raiding the highway fund to pay for light rail and they are misusing it in billions of dollars of other ways. Get rid of the waste, fraud, and abuse, and there would be more than enough to maintain the highways.
Light rail is just another way of distributing the loot and laundering some of the money back into Democrat coffers.
http://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=310
The gang problem on Portland’s light rail is a big problem.
Excerpt:
The light rail gave drug dealers and other inner-city criminals easy access to the suburbs, and soon they were intimidating and assaulting riders.
Goldschmidt failed to foresee that the cost would be far higher than originally projected. To make up some of the difference, ......Plus, of course, it cut its budget for transit police.
Hmmmm. Didn't we used to call these something else?
Wow! A color photo of a Type H.
Our esteemed career politician RINO loser Mica helped push through Sunrail (I call it Slumrail) and instantly graffiti sprang up along the route. Lots of new paint now.
Every place that has a light rail has a burden on its taxpayers. The riders should pay for the ride...not be subsidized by others. Light rail is yet another LIB wet dream.
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(Photo credit: Michael Barera)
That's like no government at all...why that is like liberty.
“Actual ridership of light rails is consistently much lower than bureaucrats’ overly optimistic estimates. The Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD) projected that the West Rail Line would carry 29,000 people each week in its first year of operation. Yet, the actual ridership was only about one third of that projection. Even this was only achieved by the RTD cutting off six bus lines so people were forced to take the light rail. After so many long term bus riders’ (many from low income families) complaints, RTD was forced to resume those bus lines. So nowadays, the West Rail Line runs pretty empty.”
Why, heck, I’ve seen 15 or 20 people at a time on one of these things as I DRIVE to my destination, which is almost always no where near a light rail station.
The big problem comes when the government agency running the system can't pay the operating costs to run the service. This is happening in some older cities with growing operating costs for their systems (Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are good examples of this). The Federal government offers big matching funds to build the system, but once a system is built the state or local government is on its own.
Nice picture of trolley with overhead electric wires. BTW who knew that companies dedicated to making shoulder pads existed?
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Washington, D.C. street car track construction, circa take a guess. This was the underground center cable drive system. And most likely the ones in light rail proponents dreams. No nasty overhead wires, trolleys having the right of way over autos, no emissions, etc.
I grew up riding on District trolleys. As a kid I loved them. Nicest way to travel in the city in early fifties. The ride down North Capitol street to Union Station was under an arch of big old trees with just glimpse of the sky, Made in the shade.
What could be nicer? Well as a kid I was unaware of the underground cable ways that were necessary for the system to work. As shown in the photo below, there was quite a bit of construction underground. A major reason the system never really expanded beyond pre-war limits. Too darn expensive when laborers were making less than fifty dollars a week, with about $2 or $2.50 in deductions. Not to mention, that while under construction it involved detouring almost all vehicular traffic during the post war housing boom extending outward from the city center.
Driving was no fun in the rain or snow, trying to brake on the slick rails, same with turns. Lots of small accidents and some major ones, of course due to the tracks.
Works in Disney Land, real world, not so much. Tourists there expect to pay through the nose and do.
I remember riding the trolley in Philadelphia when I was very young.
And shoulder pads have to come from somewhere!
when your hood is now a target of free-ranging urban ferals, taggers and break-in artists, it’s hard to see how the property values increase (though there may be some lucky exceptions, I’m sure
Let's give picks and shovels to unemployed welfare recipients and have do the trenching for streetcar lines. We might not build a lot of streetcar mileage, but I'll bet we'd massively reduce long term welfarism, at no incremental cost to the taxpayer.
Sounds all well and good until the back injury claims under ObamaCare skyrocket like a Saturn V....RIP
Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
Not a cable drive system. Ordinances in DC prohibited overhead lines on streetcars. In place of the trolley wire is something similar to a third rail system, where the power rail lies beneath the center rails. Power return is still via the running rails.
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