I agree with you. The inspections were a convenient excuse and I hope they took the opportunity to do them.
That said, it’s interesting that the article noted that the Metro system is not self sufficient based on fares alone, yet it’s the second most used system in the country.
I ran some basic numbers on the break even amount for the Red Line the libs want in Baltimore. Using the assumption of full ridership of 59,000 per day from day one, 365 days a year over the federally mandated life of the rail cars of 25 years, the system payback cost per ticket would be about $9 per ride. That factors in zero maintenance or labor costs and they admit that it will take 15 years to get to full ridership. Hogan was absolutely right to kill that puppy.
I think there are other costs to the city that need to be factored in, ranging from parking to cleaning to the loss resulting from discouraging visitors and commerce. I live in a tourist town, and one of our biggest problems is that we don’t have an effective public transit system, either for people arriving from out of town or for locals.
I grew up in NYC, and one of the great joys of life was not to have to pay for a car, its parking,its fines, etc., because you could get everywhere on public transit (which is pretty expensive still, but less than a single fine...).