On the shores of Gitche Gumee…
…comes a light-rail boondoggle named "Hiawatha."
This sure-fire money sink may end up being former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura's great legacy to Gopher State taxpayers.
[Link courtesy Free-Market.net]
Go here for Reason's compendium on light-rail and other urban development/sprawl resources.
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uh, to be clear: the state has a $4.2 billion defecit. the budget for this light rail project is $675 million, and the discussion now is focusing on the funds to operate it — not build it.
it does seem like an odd route to run. seems like it would be more effective to connect downtown to some more heavily residential areas, not the mall of america.
I normally agree with a lot of what I see here. But if you are against government funding this, will you also agree that cars should not be subsidized? If I understand correctly, the cost for this is nothing compared to of subsidizing private vehicle traffic. Maybe I am wrong, maybe we shouldn’t have any roads either. Could be. I wonder how many people would like it if Detroit and Japan etc, had to pay for all the roads that thier cars travel. Then a car could cost $200,000 a piece. I always hate government involvement, but how many roads would we have if it was left to corporations. It may be old fashioned, but I like being able to get around. But hey, I could be wrong.
Sounds like the “People Mover” in Detroit.
Lawrence,
Well, maybe its the difference between crap public transportation projects and good ones. Seems like everytime a city does one of these things, the line is about five miles long and it costs tons of money. Now, if they could bullet trains from say Atlanta to Boston, that would be cool, but these projects stink of pork barrel politics.
As a Minnesotan:
Note, it connects downtown Mpls to the airport and then the MOA (Mall Of…).
People are now thinking of how to run another connection from downtown MPLS to Downtown StPaul.
Oh, and this is a massive transit corridor, as it’ll be parallel to a Major downtown-feeding interstate.
Not that I think it’s a good idea, but it’s not so stupid…
Oh, and one more thing…
Surely half or more of the blame goes to Minneapolis US Rep Martin Olav Sabo. He got us a lot of money for this and generally principled gov. Ventura (really!) found it hard to say no to loads of Fed Cash. I consider the Rail one of JV’s worst blind spots.
Lawrence
Cars are not subsidised in the sense that public transit is. Gasoline taxes collected from drivers exceed the cost of highways. By this measure drivers subsidise many other things. Public transit systems are excempt from gas taxes so they do not even pay for the roads they use.
This method of financing roads is used because it has not been convenient to charge directly for road use. It is not a tangible that you can walk into a store and walk out with a pocketful of. (Electronic toll collection is changing this, however)
Transit can however be financed directly. You pay your fare, you take your ride. Simple. Either fares cover operating and capital costs or they don’t. Businesses that can’t cover costs should go bankrupt.
Actually light rail is a huge boondoggle being pushed by a few big national engineering and construction firms and construction unions for their own enrichment at public expense. If you want to subsidize mass transit the money will go much further on buses, bus shelters, extra traffic lanes and sidewalks (so people can walk to bus stops). There are no big bucks in these tho since these smaller projects would be won by smaller locally owned firms.
Well, it just goes to show what a wealthy and successful country America is when magnanimous politicians and bureaucrats can spent such prodigious amounts of money on every little boondoggle that crosses their wee minds :-}
If you want to subsidize mass transit the money will go much further on buses, bus shelters, extra traffic lanes and sidewalks…
Damn straight! DART has spent millions and millions and I still freeze in the Winter, get sunburn in the Summer and have to walk and stand in the mud to catch a bus… 🙁
What a piece of shit this sounds like. $4.2 billion to link downtown to a mall? History has shown that there are much more cost-effective ways to destroy a central business district…
“loads of Fed Cash” (???)
Hey, man! That’s YOUR cash. Feds don’t have any.
Charles WT. I lived in the metro DFW for about 15 years. Isn’t the governing body for Dart called the Dart Board? coincidence? I think not.
If we’re going to spend each other’s money anyway (I don’t see this taxation thing going away even though I’d like it to) at least people at the local level should get to choose how to spend it – not this ‘earmarked’ bullshit that really wastes money. In my hometown, they got some cash from the state or the fed (not sure which but it wasn’t their own) to help develop the downtown. Out of several stupid things they could use it for, the best choice seemed to be a parking garage. Well the downtown never developed to the point where anyone in their right mind would pay for parking when it was free on the streets or at the businesses there, so they ended up renting it out to the local Ford plant to park their pickup trucks when they ran out of room in the plant’s holding yard. Pretty stupid. I know this isn’t strictly germane to this particular case but it’s just another example of how the government mismanages transportation funds.
I know it’s my cash, I even think Ventura knew it was his cash. He didn’t want to see it go to a rail project in a different state.
And now this becomes a debate on Pork-Barrelling…
I don’t think Ventura (and the state legislature’s) decision on rail was right, but I felt he needed a partial defense. If we could have had the money for general mass-transit instead of earmarked for rail, I don’t think we’d have rail, we’d just have a better bus system that no one would use. But at least no one would use it all around the metro area. (And I use it every day.)
“just another example of how the government mismanages transportation funds.”
And you don’t see this taxation thing going away??
Just hold your breath for just a few more years, Jim. You’ll see.
Uprisings have happened over a lot less.
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DATE: 05/20/2004 06:43:59
I dont know what to say, but i likeed it.