rail transit

Unsafe at Any Speed 0
- March 9, 2012
Three months ago, Washington MetroRail’s Blue and Orange lines shut down when parts fell off the braking gear of one of the railcars, damaging another car. Hundreds of riders had to evacuate and train service was delayed for hours. The disk brake that fell off the Metro railcar in December. Metro initially blamed the malfunction […]
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FTA Cost-Effectiveness Rule 0
- March 6, 2012
As if projects such as the Honolulu rail line aren’t a big enough waste of money, Secretary of Immobility Ray LaHood is seeking to change the Federal Transit Administration’s process for evaluating grant proposals for rail projects. As if to illustrate the slow and cumbersome nature of federal programs, LaHood originally proposed to revise these […]
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Designed to Fail 0
- March 5, 2012
Are American cities competing to see which can come up with the most ridiculous transit proposals? If so, Honolulu will probably win, hands down. The nation’s 52nd-largest urban area has only about 950,000 people, yet it is spending $5.3 billion, or more than $5,500 per resident, to build a single 20-mile rail line. That’s probably […]
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Toronto Transit Chief Fired 0
- February 22, 2012
In an unusual move, Toronto’s transit commission fired its chief executive, Gary Webster, because he didn’t think it was cost-effective to build an expensive subway. (Usually, transit chiefs are fired for building an expensive rail line.) Actually, Webster thought that light rail was more cost-effective than subways. But Toronto Robert Ford wanted subways. He asked […]
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Another Light-Rail Success Failure 0
- February 20, 2012
Hampton Roads Transit is claiming success six months after opening its light-rail line in Norfolk. The line is carrying an average of 4,642 riders each weekday, which is far greater than the 2,900 that had been forecast. “Crowds” of as many as dozens of people look bored and apathetic at the opportunity to take free […]
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The Rail Empire Strikes Back 0
- February 16, 2012
Rail advocates responded to the Antiplanner recent visit to Charlotte, NC, by inviting William Lind, who bills himself as “a conservative who supports rail transit,” to comment on Charlotte’s proposed Red Line project. “Real conservatives like commuter trains,” says Lind. How does he know? Because the average income of people who ride commuter trains in […]
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