The feds may have been silent about helping to pay the operating costs of Jesse's and Ted's choo-choo, but that's because the feds NEVER pay the operating costs, only the exaggerated capital costs. lrt is designed to recover only 33% (or less) of operating costs from the farebox, the rest is supposed to come from advertising and subsidies.
Kevin mentions millions for buses. According to a met council report on the "costs of sprawl", $440 million would put twice as many buses on the road (an extra 900). Ramsey County mentioned that the doubling of buses would result in a 41% increase in overall ridership. Instead, more than $675 million is going down the drain on just the first line. Could have expanded the bus fleet by 1350 for that amount of money. Interestingly enough, they are really pushing for lrt between the two downtowns for "only" $660 million more. Oddly enough, extra lrt lines without tunnels under the airport and a maintenance facility and storage yard were forecast to cost $440 million each. So, if they were to waste more money to build lrt in the central corridor, the amount down the drain would total more than $1,335 million, enough to add 2,730 buses. Contrast that to the relatively recent "bus rapid transit" lines added in Los Angeles, such as the Wilshire rapid line. Running with regular traffic in non-dedicated lanes, with electronic gear to extend green lights, etc., the ridership went up 29% in just three months while the time it took to travel the line went down by 25%. The cost was $190,000 per mile plus the cost of buses. Recently, it was announced that the LA Blue Line lrt, the highest ridership lrt line in the country, reached 36,000 one-way trips per day after "only" six years. The Wilshire Rapid Line was at 44,000 per day at about the same time, in about 1/4 the time. So, don't believe it when you are told that only rail can be used on a route with high ridership. You might also hear about lrt cars lasting much longer than buses. It's true that the FTA life of lrt cars is 25 years. It's also true that the FTA life of a bus is 12 years. So, a train car lasts about twice as long and costs about six times as much, meaning three times as much per year for a trolley car. Keith writes wanting reverse commutes to Saint Cloud on the Northstar choo-choo. The last time I saw a "sample schedule", they were saying that there would be eight runs in the morning and afternoon rush periods and one train each way at noon. If I remember it correctly, there were only two reverse commute trains in the 3+ hour rush period and only two trains that came in from Saint Cloud in the morning. The other four came in from Anoka and Elk River. Recent stories have seen the supposed average speed go from 34 to 40, with no explanation of how that was achieved, since there is no agreement with BNSF on sharing the tracks, actually more like paying for the use of the tracks. Bruce Gaarder Highland Park Saint Paul [EMAIL PROTECTED] Kevin Trainor wrote: > No, because while the Feds (thanks to Congressman > Sabo) have said they're willing to shell out a few > million of our tax dollars to help build the line, > they've been real quiet about helping to pay the > operating costs. I have no faith that the Hiawatha LRT > route will ever be anything but a black hole for > subdiy dollars, and even less that the Northstar > Corridor will be any different. Keith Reitman wrote: > I wish Jesse would stop the train until it is designed to serve Keith > the needs of people who need to reverse commute. I wrote the piece below Keith > before the bubble burst and the need for jobs in the hood trebled. Keith > _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
