TriMet’s $166 million “Westside Express Service” (WES) commuter rail is a miserable failure. After going 60 percent over budget, it is carrying only about 600 round trips per day. The amortized value of the capital cost alone is enough to buy every one of those commuters a brand-new Toyota Prius every year for the next 30 years. Those Priuses would be cleaner than the WES too.Underestimated costs? Overestimated benefits? Sounds like Cap-and-Trade ...
But this is an outlier, right? Oh, wait:
“Norfolk leaders want an audit to figure out why its light rail project has gone $108 million over budget,” reports the Associated Press. The city don’t need to spend money on an audit. The reason for the overrun is obvious: It’s a rail-transit construction project.The Antiplanner keeps his fingers on the pulse of public transportation projects, so you don't have to. Sure wish we had him bere in Boston when they were building the Big Dig.
Underestimated costs? Overestimated benefits? Sounds like Cap-and-Trade ...
ReplyDeleteSounds like every mass transit project ever created. I can't understand the liberal infatuation with mass transit. Unless it's just that they like inefficient, inconvenient, over priced projects that the taxpayers hate.
They want to build light rail here in SA as well. Nevermind that we already have an excellent bus system that reaches nearly everywhere in the city. In our case I think it's a class issue; poor people who can't afford a car ride the bus, so light rail has the prospect of drawing in richer folk.
ReplyDeletew/v "pantskic"--Just what they need!
Sabra, the danger is that they'll drop a pile of dough into a rail system, massively underestimate the cost, and have to cut the bus line because they spent all their money.
ReplyDeleteIOW, they'll kill the part of mass transit that works today, and screw low-income people over, and likely end up with a poorly functioning rail system.
This isn't an "optimized" strategy, it's a "pessimized" one.
I live in Norfolk. Those of us without our heads in the sand (very few of us in one of the three liberal strongholds in Virginia) saw this coming from the get-go.
ReplyDeleteIt was obvious that the city "leaders" weren't interested in this for any financial benefit, but for nothing more than scoring enviro-weenie brownie points and bragging rights.
The cost over-runs are a surprise to no-one...even those who are feigning surprise...it was very obvious that the estimates were unrealistic even for "best case".
What's more is that over half the initial funding for the project came from federal tax money. Yes, the city is wasting our money (especially in paying for the cost overruns), but they're wasting YOUR money too.
Sorry 'bout that. I would have stopped it if I could have.
And I guarantee you that the ridership will be even more miserable than in other cities that have tried this.
Our bus service sucks. From my house, it would take me about an hour and a half to get the 10 miles or so to a train station, then 20 minutes to get to the destination station on the other end...where I would then either have to hoof it to wherever my ultimate destination was, or spend another hour or so on buses.
Alternatively, I could drive to the destination station on the other end in 30 to 45 minutes...even during heavy traffic...with the obvious benefits of not being tied to the train schedule and I'd have my vehicle with me in case I wanted to go somewhere else.
Unless you live within walking distance of a train station (which are located primarily in commercial/industrial districts with relatively sparse residential areas) it will not be beneficial at all...and will so be mainly unused.
But, hey...at leas the Mayor and City council can tout their "green" creds because "their" city has a light rail system that virtually no one uses.
BTW: Construction is only about 50% complete (IIRC), which means the cost overruns aren't done overrunning yet. The final bill is bound to be even worse than it looks like right now.
Sounds a lot like BART...
ReplyDeleteCentral Florida wants to do the same thing throughout Orlando and Tampa, even though our bus system is underutilized and running at a loss, and even though the voters have defeated the measure anyway. Obama is scheduled in town this week to announce a billion dollars of Chinese tax dollars to pay for it.
ReplyDelete