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Light rail costs too much, does too little

Reprinted from The Antiplanner

We Can’t Afford What We’ve Got, So Let’s Build More

Jan 13

2009

A rail broke on DC Metrorail’s Red Line last week, leading to “major delays.” Such problems are increasingly frequent now that the rail system is 30 years old and Metro can’t afford to replace worn out equipment.

Heck, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) ” can’t even afford to operate, much less maintain, the system it has. It expects a $176 million shortfall in its budget next year. Somehow, officials think they can trim $103 million from the budget without cutting service, but that still leaves $73 million in service cuts.

Despite these problems, WMATA “is committed” to building new rail to Dulles Airport. The Dulles transit plan originally called for a 23-mile bus-rapid transit line that would cost less than $300 million to start and $38 million a year to operate.

Then, in 2004, it got changed to a 12-mile rail line that would cost $1.5 billion to build and $67 million to operate. At the latest count, the rail line — still only 12 miles long — will cost $3 billion to build and $83 million a year to operate.

The pressure to build the Dulles rail project is coming from Virginia politicians. But I am sure that WMATA officials are only too happy to add to their rail empire. After all, it is always someone else’s money. And when service cuts are made, you can be sure they won’t cut the services to politically important board members.

Meanwhile, I hope they fix that broken rail before I next go back to DC. It was on the line to 2Amy’s Pizza, the best pizza I can find on the east coast, and I’d hate to miss a good pizza because of poor transit management. Oh well, there is probably a bus.