Metro Rail As A Financial Disaster

Regarding "Just in time for Christmas" (Friday City & State), it is difficult to imagine anything more ill-conceived than the expansion of Houston's glorified trolley system.  First, the North Line expansion is useless as mass transit goes, since neither end allows a larger pool of commuters to productively use it: there are no large scale park-and-ride lots planned, nor is it designed to expand into east-west trunks that might eventually make it a bona fide mass transit system. 

 

And let us not forget that since it is at ground level, it will be a pedestrian's and motorist's nightmare, as is the existing South line, effectively strangling east-west commuter traffic along its length.

 

To truly appreciate their myopia, though, no critique of Metro Rail is complete without considering its cost.  The North line will cost $142 Million per mile to build.  It is inconceivable that with so much money, they could not have built a bona fide subway or elevated mass transit system.  The North Line is more than three times the cost of the South Line nearly a decade ago.  It is also $20 Million per mile more than the I-10 West highway expansion, which is 18 lanes wide. 

 

Finally, Metro confidently predicts that passenger fares will never cover operating costs.  It's hard to imagine that anybody will consider the North Line a "gift" come Christmas, with the exception of the contractors and politicians profiting from this boondoggle.

 

Pete Smith

Cypress