RE: The economics and politics of supertrains
Phoenix has a brand new light rail line.
So far, cost per passenger on a brand new system is higher than the natural gas buses it replaced. This is on a system that is brand new with very low maintenance costs. You have to wonder what will happen as the system ages and need a lot more maintenance.
Then there was the claim that it would be less polluting than the natural gas buses. This is true if you look just at the vehicle. However, power to run the system comes from APS (an electrical utility) that gets it power from a variety of sources that includes nuclear, natural gas and coal. When this is considered, the light rail is probably putting out more pollution than the natural gas buses. It does move the pollution from the Phoenix metro area into more rural backyards.
Then there's the cost, $1.1 billion for a 20 mile line. Consider that the buses replaced by the light rail could have been replaced with brand new buses annually and run for decades on that $1.1 billion.
There may be other benefits such as redevelopment of blighted areas. While it does appear to be having some impact, I have to wonder if it couldn't have been done cheaper in another way.
A considerable amount of the $1.1 billion came from the federal government. At a time when the federal government that cannot balance their budget, I don't think this was a wise investment. There is a reason the federal debt is now approximately $240,000 per house hold and climbing. This puts the countries future at great risk. I don't believe light rail should be funded when basics services people depend on such as Social Security and Medicare are in such dire conditions.
