Megabus Business Booming
Ridership on Megabus is “well up from last year,” and starting in about two weeks the company plans to expand service to several new cities. Megabus will then serve nearly 50 major cities, all with virtually no subsidies. Megabus near Chicago Union Station.Flickr photo by compujeramey . Meanwhile, high-speed rail nuts want to spend tens […]
Where Do We Draw the Line?
“How much is sustainability worth?” asks Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Nigel Jaquiss. “Try $65 million in public money.” That’s how much taxpayers will be spending on a $72 million “green” building in downtown Portland. At $462 a square foot, it will be “perhaps the most expensive office space ever built in Portland.” The director of the […]
GOP Advances Two Decades
A left-wing blog accuses Republicans of wanting to “bring transport policy back to the 1950s.” At least, the GOP is two decades ahead of where the Democrats wanted to go, considering that 110-mph intercity trains and light rail both date back to the 1930s, and streetcars to several decades earlier. Denver Zephyr traveling at 90 […]
Obama’s High-Speed Bus Plan
Obama Replaces Costly High-Speed Rail Plan With High-Speed Bus Plan Note the cost savings: $15 billion for high-speed rail vs. $46,000 for high-speed buses. More evidence of the wastefulness of high-speed rail.
Urban Sustainability
Portland, Oregon is full of sustainability advocates who look forward to petrocollapse and “experiment” with such things as country living and learning to live as voluntary peasants. Two such sustainability advocates are trained engineers and have a blog promoting urban gardening and raising chickens as if these were somehow new ideas. Apparently, these engineers have […]
Transit Unions: Victims or Bullies?
A Portland transit union leader says his members have been “victimized” by a free-market group that posted their salaries on line. But who is the real victim here: the people collecting the salaries or the people whose taxes pay the salaries even if they never ride transit? Back in June, a free-market group in New […]
More Election Results
Progressive Railroading lists a few more election results, oriented of course to pro-rail transit. That article in turn links to the Center for Transportation Excellence, a group focused on government “investment” in infrastructure, which claims that the vast majority of transportation measures passed this year (including elections prior to November). Many of the measures on […]
Interpreting the Election Results
Tea party supporters do not agree on a lot of issues, but are firm on two things: cutting government spending and protecting property rights. What do the election results mean for the future of land-use and transportation planning? On one hand, many of the results look promising for supporters of property rights and efficient (user-fee-driven) […]
Arithmetic-Challenged Favor High-Speed Rail
On Monday, the Washington Post published a devastating critique of high-speed rail written by journalist Robert Samuelson. In fewer than 800 words, Samuelson blows up just about all the arguments put forth in favor of rail. An 8-word summary: costs are too high and benefits too low. One person who remains unconvinced is the popular […]
Phoenix Transit Cuts: Caused by Light Rail?
Phoenix’s transit agency, Valley Metro, claims that its new light-rail line is a great success, but the Antiplanner is reserving judgment until we have actual data. In the meantime, news reports indicate that Valley Metro is failing to improve bus service as promised when voters agreed to increase the sales tax to support “roads and […]
Dead Again
New Jersey’s Governor Chris Christie rekilled the Hudson River tunnel project. He had killed it before, a couple of weeks ago, but then promised to reconsider his decision at the request of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Christie did not want to burden New Jersey taxpayers with the cost overruns, now anticipated to be at least […]
More Money Wasted
Just in time to influence the November election, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has granted $2.5 billion for high-speed rail to several states, including California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, and Michigan. Underscoring the political nature of the grants, the announcements were not made by the Federal Railroad Administration, which doesn’t mention them on its web site. Instead, […]
