Sam Smith - One of the reasons I have been skeptical of spending a lot of money on high speed rail is that I covered the story of Washington's Metro from the time it was just an idea. It helped to establish a quirky reputation for questioning the project for a variety of reasons:
- It was too expensive. At the time, you could have provided 1000 miles of light rail for the cost of 100 miles of subway.
- It was not really a transportation system but a real estate development system.
- Only a minority of people coming to the new development would come by subway; most would come by car. Hence the subway would actually increase street traffic.
- It didn't really compete with the automobile but with existing bus lines.
- It would make it easier to for people, businesses and tourists to move out of the city and into the suburbs.
I argued instead for light rail and exclusive bus lanes - novelties in those days - in part because they they strengthened urban neighborhoods, didn't require a mile trip to the nearest station, and actually took space away from the automobile.
My views were unacceptable to say the least. The Metro was the most romantic and thrilling thing that had happened to DC in years and no one was meant to criticize it. Yet not only did my arguments prove accurate, the Metro experience soon became a lesson to other cities to try other approaches. Hence the rise of light rail and exclusive bus lanes.
There are similar emotions driving high speed rail; it sounds great but does nothing to aid the average person - as opposed to a business class passenger - or the average pound of goods get from point A to point B.
Here's the most recent update on DC's dream system:
Washington Examiner - Metro General Manager Richard Sarles observed his first anniversary as official head of the transit system last week with a cracked rail, a complete meltdown of the communications systems and thousands of angry riders berating the system.
That came after a bad string of weeks in which brake parts broke off two separate trains, two other rails cracked and two of his workers were busted on accusations of stealing tens of thousands of fare dollars to buy lottery tickets...
Now he is asking more money from the Washington area's shell-shocked commuters and taxpayers to fill a $116 million hole in next year's $2.6 billion budget, while acknowledging that service won't be improving anytime soon. Instead riders can expect more weekend shutdowns, more trains squeezed onto a single track and more stalled escalators.
Starting Wednesday, riders will face a new challenge when the south entrance of Dupont Circle will close for more than eight months as the agency replaces all the escalators, forcing the thousands of riders who pass through the system's fifth busiest station to funnel into one exit every day.
Rail system ridership, meanwhile, has been faltering and is expected to get worse, even before an expected fare increase takes effect.
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