What's your take on prt, Bruce? Jason Stone Diamond Lake
--- Bruce Gaarder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Back when they were still working on railroading through the Hiawatha > train, Metro Transit stated that the number of buses in operation could be > doubled for $440 million. It's undoubtedly a little higher now, with > inflation. > > Imagine your wait for a bus being about half as long. Imagine a bus with > perhaps 2/3 as many people (less crowded.) Imagine a faster ride. Imagine > a more reliable schedule because there is less crowding at stops. > > All of these would happen in this scenario. Instead, they buy a train for > about 2/3 MORE than that $440 million, to improve things on one route out > of 200 in the metro area, and then the service is cut back on some of the > other 199 because of budget issues. There will be more cuts in the future > because of lrt. The claim was that the was enough money in the long range > plan to fund combined bus and train operation with only one fare increase > necessary in 2007 or so. We've already seen a couple of increases before > the train even started rolling. > > Ramsey County wants to build lrt between the downtowns on University > Avenue because it envies Minneapolis. Costing "only" $880 million for > an even shorter length of track with no additional maintenance facility, > it will vastly congest University to the point where the county projects > that there will be only about 16 blocks along University between the > Minneapolis/Saint Paul border and Regions Hospital that won't have one or > two lanes of cars and trucks backed up during rush hour. The cumulative > length of the backups with lrt is about 60% HIGHER than without. > > Lrt doesn't cut pollution or auto use enough (0.1%) to even be 1/10 of > the model's margin of error. > > In the San Jose area, they have lrt and buses. They have a $6 billion > budget problem over the next ten years, so they are cutting bus (and even > lrt) service to meet the budget. That's so that they can build more rail > service, so that they can cut bus service more in the future. > > In Los Angeles, they cut bus service to build lrt and a subway. They were > successfully sued by the NAACP and the Bus Riders' Union and are under a > consent decree to provide a certain level of bus service. The transit > agency has publicly stated that when the consent decree expires in 2007, > they plan to get rid of the extra buses that they had to add. > > A lot of train pushers point to Dallas as a success story. Depends on how > you measure success. DART rail was supposed to pay 50% of its operating > and maintenance costs with passenger fares. In 1985 it was 35%, in 2001 > it was 12%. See the trend? > > > Visit www.EffectiveTransit.org > > The Independent Unsubsidized Voice of > > Citizens for Effective Transit in the Twin Cities > > * lrt isn't a potato chip, you can stop at just one * > > Bruce Gaarder > Highland Park > Saint Paul > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > REMINDERS: > 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL > PROTECTED] before > continuing it on the list. > 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. > > For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html > For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract > ________________________________ > > Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy > Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it! http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/ REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
