Tag: mass transit
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Storm Water Regs? What Storm Water Regs?
Officials at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) have revealed that they will have to redesign portions of Phase II of the Rail-to-Dulles project to accommodate new storm-water regulations. MWAA offered no estimate as to how much the changes would add to the estimated $5.6 billion total price tag for both phases of the project. According…
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BRT to Nowhere?
by James A. Bacon There’s a whole lot of fuzzy thinking going on. People in the Richmond area are so enamored with the prospect of building a Bus Rapid Transit route through the city that they are saying the most astonishing things. Bus Rapid Transit can be a great idea if done correctly. But it…
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A Better Route
by James A. Bacon The GRTC Transit System, like most municipal bus systems, provides a one-size-fits-all transportation service. Whatever the route, time of day and level of demand, GRTC runs a standard city bus capable of carrying nearly 60 seated and standing passengers along fixed routes. Everyone pays the same fare ($1.50 on local routes),…
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Overruns, Subsidies and Pollution
by James A. Bacon Randal O’Toole, the Cato Institute’s transportation scholar, has penned a devastating take-down of Norfolk’s light rail system, the Tide. The rail line, which opened in 2011 60% over budget and 16 months late, ran operating losses of $12.5 million in 2012, about double projections. Farebox revenues covered about 5% of operating costs. Hoped-for…
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Time for Lean Transit
William Lind suggests applying the principles of “lean urbanism” to rail mass transit, in effect creating a “lean transit.” Writing in the Center for Public Transportation, Lind is a rare conservative who supports mass transit. But he’s also a realist: He acknowledges that excessive government regulation drives up the cost of mass transit, especially rail,…
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Terry McAuliffe: Working Hard to Make His Own Mistakes
Governor Terry McAuliffe is working hard to clean up the transportation boondoggles of the McDonnell administration — but how many new boondoggles will he create of his own making? Yesterday, the governor announced $13.1 billion in transportation capital expenditures after making final adjustments to the state’s Six-Year Improvement Plan. In the announcement, McAuliffe made much of…
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Oops. Arlington Adds another $100 Million to Streetcar Cost
by James A. Bacon Want to know why Virginians are so suspicious of big-ticket transportation projects? Voters feel like public officials are masters of the ol’ bait-and-switch: The governing class sucks the public into supporting an infrastructure project with a low-ball estimate, builds political support and institutional momentum, and then reveals massively higher cost estimates…
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Bicycling in Paradise
One of California’s greatest assets is its climate, and San Francisco, though foggier than nearby locales, is no exception. Climatically speaking, the city is as close to paradise as any location on the planet, which makes it a great place to spend outdoors and a great place to bicycle. As one would expect, San Francisco…
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A Second Opinion on the Columbia Pike Streetcar
by James A. Bacon This is exactly what we need in the debate over Arlington’s proposed $284 million streetcar system for Columbia Pike: close scrutiny from local citizens. Arlingtonians for Sensible Transit (AST) has issued a paper listing 15 reasons why the streetcar would be a waste of taxpayers’ money. “The consultant has collected its $100,000…
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Study Boosts Case for Columbia Pike Streetcar
by James A. Bacon Investing $284 million in a streetcar system along Columbia Pike would generate between $3.2 billion and $4.4 billion in net tax revenue for Arlington and Fairfax Counties, over and above capital and operating costs, over 30 years, according to a new analysis by HR&A Advisors prepared for Arlington County. The street car system…
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How the Buy-America Mandate Hurts U.S. Transit
by James A. Bacon Why do bus lines so consistently lose money? One reason is that transit companies, out of concern for the poor, keep fares too low. Another is that politics dictate that money-losing bus routes stay open. A third reason is that federal regulations effectively require transit companies to purchase American-manufactured buses that…
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Busy Day at the CTB
Many meaty stories from the Commonwealth Transportation Board meeting today. It will take me a long time to do them all justice, so, for the moment, I will settle for whetting your appetite with the highlights. The Charlottesville Bypass is dead. It may not be buried — a few ritual oblations remains — but it…
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Uh, oh, McAuliffe Might Help Fund Light Rail for the Beach
by James A. Bacon Governor Terry McAuliffe has committed to provide state support for a proposed $1.1 billion to $1.3 billion project to extend Norfolk’s light rail line, the Tide, to the Virginia Beach ocean front, according to Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms. During his state of the city address, Sessoms claimed that the McAuliffe…
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The Acid Test for Richmond BRT: Will Property Owners Tax Themselves?
by James A. Bacon Momentum is building in the Richmond region to build a 7.4-mile Bus Rapid Transit system along the Broad Street corridor. Transit lovers tout the many blessings that a BRT system would bring, and they discuss the projected costs, but there are two things you never hear them talk about: Risk and…
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Matatus for America
by James A. Bacon What would happen if government didn’t subsidize publicly owned mass transit systems in the United States? How would millions of car-less Americans ever get around? It may be instructive to look at the example of Nairobi, Kenya, a city of three million that hasn’t gotten around to establishing a municipal transit…