Transportation

Capital Metro's commuter rail line, set to begin operation in a few months, still doesn't have approval from the Federal Railroad Administration.

Wear: What's in rail name? Tougher rules

Looks like former rail director, Rich Krisak bailed for Atlanta just in time.

A pedestrian was struck by a Houston Metro Rail train earlier this week. One of nearly 40 rail accidents that go unreported or underreported. Another glimpse of things to come for Austin.

Capital Metro's commuter rail line is (not surprisingly) running behind schedule. The rail line running from Leander to downtown Austin is now not expected to open until March.

One more broken promise from CapMetro. First, Austin taxpayers get soaked with annual operating costs that are double what they voted for, now the project is months late.

Blue Dot Blues alerts us of a MoveOn.org stunt to deliver a "petition" to Congressman Michael McCaul's office today at noon opposing off-shore drilling. Liberals are watching what's happening with the Don't Go revolt and they're getting worried. Not only are conservatives beginning to embrace and make effective use of social networking technologies once the exclusive domain of the left, domestic drilling has real traction with voters.

Update: Voice in the Wilderness is on it.

Undress4Success - Slap In Face Of Telecommuting:

Seems the Democrats have their nose out of joint because the Connecticut Republican leader Lawrence Cafero has proposed a telecommuting plan, and they didn’t think of it first. At least that’s what I gather from a piece Christopher Keating wrote today in the Hartford CT Courant.

In fact, of 50,000 Connecticut state employees only 140 telecommute. Our numbers suggest something like 40% could.

But Slap doesn’t seem to have a clue, “”The reality is that the GOP plan would not save taxpayers any money and would not ease congestion. In fact, the only people the plan would help would be Republican caucus staff members.”

Really? “A good starting place would be to document how much money a telecommuting plan might save taxpayers,” Slap said, according to Keating.

Okay, using national average numbers for time and distances for the commute, and $4/gallon for the price of gas, if 5,000 Connecticut employees started telecommuting it would save over 1.1 million gallons of gas or almost 4.5 million dollars in fuel bills. State employees are taxpayers, remember.

You'd think the self-proclaimed saviors of the planet would be all over this.

No doubt a glimpse of things to come for Austin drivers, North Texas officials will ask the legislature to approve a huge hike in vehicle registration fees to pay for expansion of light rail. And to rub a little salt in the wound, they're calling it a "user" tax:

While it is being billed as a "user tax," it is nothing of the kind, because it would fund a rail system, not roads. A user tax would be if rail riders paid the cost of the system, but because the costs of rail almost always exceed the benefits, proponents seek to shift the cost to non-users. While it is true that constructing rail requires an enormous initial outlay, that also applies to toll roads, but whether or not one agrees with the policy, the private sector is willing to invest in them because the benefits are proven to exceed the costs over the long haul.

Currently, the only cities in the world where a rail system operates profitably are Tokyo and Hong Kong, and they each have at least 10 times the population density of the Metroplex.

In the article, rail advocates also describe the possibly triple-digit increase in the vehicle registration as a "sin tax," but even someone who purchases a hybrid car would pay and many people are trading in their cars for more fuel efficient vehicles, but they would be punished by this tax.

Wendell Cox, a leading expert on transportation policy, has noted, "The annual cost per new rider of virtually every light rail line built here in the past 20 years has been more than the annual cost of leasing each new commuter a new car. Light rail has no part to play in a transport system, because of its expense. Rapid transit busways virtually equal light rail capacity, at a fraction of the cost."

After flip-flopping on ANWR...

... Noriega just can't seem to figure this whole energy policy thing out. From the Austin Chronicle:

You know those kids' puzzles where you have to find the four or five differences between two nearly identical cartoons? That's how Texas voters might feel as they try to distinguish between the energy plans of our incumbent junior U.S. senator, Republican John Cornyn, and his Democratic challenger, state Rep. Rick Noriega of Houston.

Noriega seems to be going for the "me too" plan. Take Cornyn's energy plan and throw in a silly threat to sue OPEC. Yeah, that'll show 'em.

[By way of Sal]

From thenewspaper.com - a transportation policy blog:

GAO Questions Wisdom of Public Private Partnerships

Government Accountability Office testimony warns of need to better assess the true cost of privately operated toll roads.

The Government Accountability Office last week questioned the wisdom of using public-private partnerships to build and maintain toll roads. GAO's Director of Physical Infrastructure issues, Jay Etta Z. Hecker, summarized the congressional watchdog agency's work in testimony before a US Senate Finance subcommittee hearing on Thursday that focused on the cost to the public of privately operated toll road leasing arrangements.

Broadly speaking, these arrangements allow private companies to lease existing roads in return for the ability to collect toll revenue for a fixed term that can last up to 99 years. In some cases, these companies will offer local politicians billions of dollars in up-front cash payments for leasing rights. The private company would then be responsible for maintaining the road. In other cases, the private company would build and own entirely new roads, delivering significant new highway capacity to the public in return for significant profit potential.

...

You can read the rest of the GAO report here.

I would hope that everyone doesn't take as a lesson from our current toll road nightmare that all privatization or public/private ventures are bad. Getting the private sector involved in public works - if managed correctly and ethically - can save the taxpayer billions. The real problem here is plain old-fashioned corruption.

Along with their egos, Mayor Wynn and Council Member McCracken’s light rail vanity project is getting bigger and more expensive:

$600 million streetcar plan offered for Austin
City consultant's proposal still a work in progress, and many hurdles remain before concept could become a reality.

...

Central Austin should have a 15.3-mile streetcar system, consultants hired by the Austin City Council told members Thursday, a slight refinement of a proposal that the ROMA Design Group unveiled in April.

What do we want? Utopia! When do we want it? Now! What will cost? We don’t care!

When ROMA first rolled out this plan back in April, the upper end of the cost was estimated to be somewhere around $420 million by McCracken at the time. Now it’s $600 million. He also said back in April it shouldn’t require any new taxes. I’m not seeing any such rosy predictions in the current coverage.

Ever-increasing construction-cost estimates? Check.

Annual operating expenses for the Wynn-McCracken express are estimated to be between $21 million and $23. Voters were sold on initial estimates for the Capital Metro commuter of $5 million annual operating expense. The actual operating cost ended up being twice that.

Doubling annual operating expenses? Check.

Build it and they will ride

The proposed rail line runs from the airport to the Long Center and then to UT and on to the Mueller development. Ducky for people who both and live and work or go to school along the route, I suppose.
I sure hope all those out-of-towners flying in for events downtown and non-permanent-resident students appreciate the wonderful gift from the Austin taxpayers.

Don’t let those pesky voters derail my shiny new train

After voters rejected the disastrous 2000 light rail plan, Wynn and company have been carefully coaching ROMA, the architects of the plan, to make it as appealing as possible to voters. I think we’re in for a taxpayer-funded marketing plan that would make TXDOT proud.

This is a billion-dollar boondoggle in the making.

http://www.youtube.com/v/BKmkIP1GCkw