Champlain Flyer [Burlington, VT commuter train] Grounded

AP via website of WVNY-TV 22, Burlington, VT ^ | 2/28/03 | No author credit

[foreverfree]

Champlain Flyer Grounded

By Associated Press

5:04 pm EST February 28, 2003 -- Vermont's lone commuter train is due to chug into history today.

The Champlain Flyer that carries commuters between Charlotte and Burlington is due to make its last departure from Burlington at five after six this evening.

That train began running in December 2000, but it cost more than expected and didn't attract the number of expected riders.

Governor James Douglas announced the end of the Flyer during his budget address last month.

Technically, the Flyer hasn't been killed, just suspended.

It could be revived by the Legislature if reconstruction of U-S Route seven south of Burlington creates massive traffic delays.

Friday, 2/28/03

[foreverfree]

To read how another Burlington TV station covered the event, click this. It's the first story.

foreverfree

(who's skied in Stowe and ridden a tourist train in NH)

[Fixit]

From The Rutland Herald

Crews from NBC Nightly News were in Montpelier Tuesday to film a story on the Flyer for the program’s “Fleecing of America” segment, which is devoted to exposing wasteful government spending programs. The commuter train between Burlington and Charlotte — championed by then-Gov. Howard Dean — made its initial appearance on the show in 1998, two years before it even began regular operation.

Now Douglas has proposed ending the train’s run in March, and NBC plans to air a segment next Thursday documenting the move.
...
Even the most charitable analysis by the Joint Fiscal Committee put the projected capital cost of the project at nearly $4 million, while the actual expenses were almost $15 million. And the projected annual operating cost of about $1 million turned out to be closer to $2.6 million.

Ridership was projected at 214,562 passenger trips annually and was expected to generate more than $160,000 in revenue. Instead, the train has managed about 83,000 riders annually and taken in about $53,000 in the last year.

[southernnorthcarolina]

Meanwhile, another Charlotte (my North Carolina home town) is plunging ahead with commuter rail. Naturally, it's already over budget before the first station is built, or the first train car bought.

A little trolly line linking a close-in neighborhood to downtown, and which is seperate and distinct from the light rail commuter project, has already become a fiasco. The trolly's main purpose, it seems, will be to shuttle people between the Convention Center and the South End entertainment district, but it has barely begun running on a trial basis over part of its route, and budget concerns and equipment durability worries are plaguing it already.

There are those (of which I am one) who say that if the city can't run a dinky tourist trolly without turning it into a cluster-f***, we have no business getting into the rail transit biz. For whatever reason, cities across the land see train transit as validation of their "world class" status. Gee, if London and New York and Chicago have trains, then surely Charlotte needs them purely from an image standpoint.

Let's not worry that this 18th century technology has been proved a financial disaster over and over again.