Flash! Amtrak Food Services Loses Money
House Transportation Committee Chair John Mica says that Amtrak is losing $84 million a year on its food services. A recent report from the Amtrak inspector general says that at least part of the loss is due to thefts from Amtrak food-service personnel. Florida Representative Sandy Adams–who, due to redistricting, is facing Mica in this […]
Rail Propaganda Is Not a Civil Right
Honolulu’s transit agency signed millions of dollars worth of contracts to Parsons Brinckerhoff and other consultants to spread propaganda in favor of its $5 billion rail project, which is a major issue in tomorrow’s Saturday’s mayoral election. When a member of Honolulu’s city council proposed to require the transit agency to terminate these contracts and […]
Here and There
Atlanta wisely voted down a transportation tax. Some thought it spent too much on highways; some too much on transit. But wherever the money would be spent, why should transportation be paid for out of taxes when users will (and should) pay for it? Meanwhile, the race for mayor of Honolulu is heating up with […]
Champions of Pork
For the White House to declare someone a “champion of change,” they apparently have to be a champion of pork. The first person listed helped plan the California high-speed rail system, whose projected costs have more than doubled in since voters approved it in 2008. The original cost projections, made in the late 1990s, were […]
“You’ll Be Given Cushy Jobs”
Mame Reiley, a professional political activist who supports liberal Democratic causes in Virginia, recently resigned from the board of directors of the Washington Metropolitan Airport Authority (WMAA), the entity that is extending Metrorail to the Dulles Airport. Immediately upon resigning, the authority hired her as an “advisor” and will pay her $180,000 a year. Since […]
Because $117 Billion Wasn’t Expensive Enough
In 2010, Amtrak proposed to spend $117 billion to upgrade its Boston-to-Washington high-speed rail corridor. This idea was so unrealistically expensive that the Antiplanner called it “gold-plated high-speed rail.” Apparently, Amtrak wants platinum plating instead, as its 2012 update to the proposal has raised the cost to $151 billion. This includes some additional bells and […]
RTD Fools the Wall Street Journal
“Denver rethinks the modern commuter,” heralds the Wall Street Journal. The article goes on to say that, instead of building parking lots at its rail stations, Denver is encouraging developers to build high-density, mixed-use developments. Somehow, this is supposed to be news. Let’s think this through. First of all, no one is “rethinking the modern […]
Metro Says Heat Wave Not “Extreme”
A Washington, DC, Metro train broke down for unknown reasons and another one jumped the tracks in another routine day for DC rail transit. The derailment was caused by a “heat kink” in the tracks, and Metro says it normally slows down trains during “extreme heat,” but hadn’t decided to do so in this heat […]
Environmentalists Destroy Boston Transit
The Metropolitan Boston Transportation Authority (MBTA, or “T” for short) is in deep financial trouble, with nearly $9 billion of debt and a $3 billion maintenance backlog that is growing more every year. According to a Boston Herald op ed by Harvard researcher Charles Chieppo, the blame for this can be placed on the Dukakis […]
California Itching to Lose a Decade
Last week, the California legislature voted to destroy the state’s economy for another decade. The 21 senators who voted for the measure told the public they were approving a high-speed train from Los Angeles to San Francisco, but everyone knows they barely have enough money to build from Fresno to Bakersfield. In voting to borrow […]
Cities Growing Faster Than Suburbs–Not!
A return to the cities and rejection of the suburbs is an article of faith among smart-growth planners, and their wishful thinking is often supported by breathless media reports. The latest news comes from 2011 Census estimates, which the Wall Street Journal reports as revealing that the “cities outpace suburbs in growth.” MSNBC reports that […]
Planners Inspired by Supreme Court Decision
Representatives of the Association of American Planners applauded the Supreme Court’s health-care decision that a Congressional requirement to buy health insurance was a tax, not a mandate. “This provides us the tools we need to fix everything that’s wrong with America,” said association CEO Paul “Precious” Farmlands. The association’s government affairs staff immediately began crafting […]
