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Light rail costs too much, does too little

Gravy Train

Earl Blumenauer and the ”transportation mafia”

BY COREY PEIN

 

On March 18, 2003, President George W. Bush told Congress he was about to invade Iraq. We all know how that went.

 

That same day, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Portland Democrat, introduced a bill to create a federal grant program for streetcars.

 

That effort has gone a bit better.

 

Two weeks ago, Portland got closer to benefiting from Blumenauer’s work and receiving $75 million in federal funding for the eastside extension of the streetcar. While Portland’s westside streetcar was built mostly with local money, the planned eastside loop—which will eventually cross the Broadway Bridge and run down to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry—will be financed with tax dollars collected from citizens all over the country. It would be the first time such a big chunk of federal money—more than half the projected $147 million cost—has gone toward streetcars.

 

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