The Light Rail Albatross
This message was sent to NC Speaker Thom Tillis and NC Senate President Berger, with copies to our state Rep Ruth Samuelson and State Senator, Bob Rucho. Anyone in Meck County or elsewhere needs to do the same. We need to inundate these characters with messages the state, in no uncertain terms, that we will NOT put up with the same wasteful irresponsibility as was done by their predecessors. It does not help to tighten the state’s budget belt when it continues to fund this boondoggle promoted by Charlotte’s erstwhile tax-and-spend phony “Republican” mayor. NC also cannot afford to spend one cent of the taxpayer’s money on this latest monument to government waste.
We do not need another edifice to inflate the egos of the politicians with “See what I did!” or the wallets of Charlotte’s ruling cabal who have vast real estate holdings along the rail line. We need leaders without “Edifice Complexes”
Mel
PS: Is the proposed extension to UNCC in part payment for all the phony-baloney transportation “studies” they concocted that supported building the Light Rail?
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Dear NC Senate President Berger
It is the height of irresponsibility for the NC Legislature, particularly a REPUBLICAN legislature, to give Charlotte any money to expand the “Light Rail” system. We in Mecklenburg County already have both city and county governments that act like spoiled adolescents who have stolen the family credit card, gone on a reckless spending binge and won’t give the card back. You are only making it worse, like giving “crack” to a crack addict!
Any support you give to RINO Pat McCrory is unacceptable. McCrory has been a major part of the problem and will be one for all of North Carolina if you don’t watch out. Pat and his cronies have already hung numerous overpriced architectural and transportation albatrosses like our third arena in a few decades*, the “White Elephant” Center, or the NASCAR “(Financial) Hall of Shame” around the necks of the taxpayers already. Charlotte does not need nor want, nor can afford, an extension to the already overpriced Lynx “light rail” line that has already gravely hurt other transportation in Charlotte.
*”Rome had one coliseum that lasted a thousand years; Charlotte’s already had three!” Don Reid
Sure, this toy is great transportation for the VERY small minority of commuters who actually ride The McCrory Train, but:
It was supposed to cost about $225 million to build according to the promoters; but like every one of these cockamamy projects that fatten the wallets of a select few insiders, the cost inflated to more than double, actually costing closer to $475 million, not including the $75 or so million “stolen” from infrastructure funds that were supposed to repair sewer and water lines, etc. Our water rates were raised to make up for it. It is also conceivable that stray electricity from the line contributed galvanic corrosion to our water lines, accelerating their deterioration. Water line failures suddenly jumped up after the Lynx began running.
For $475 million we wasted on the Lynx line, we could have purchased over 700 hybrid-electric buses or given Charlotte citizens over almost 30,000 Ford Fiesta automobiles that get 29 mpg city gas milage!
Lynx was supposed to reduce traffic congestion….i.e., with ridership representing AT MOST 2-3% of the commuters? Since the rail line crosses city streets in numerous places, it has in fact exacerbated traffic congestion as the gates come down for the train. Traffic often comes to a standstill when the Lynx is running after games; and the situation has not improved one bit. In the meantime, Charlotte roads that needed to be built or widened have not. Charlotte roads that needed repairs have continued to deteriorate. For infinitely less money, traffic lights COULD and SHOULD have been synchronized to save significant amounts of commuting time and fuel consumption. Instead, they continue to be ignored while Charlotte continued to build and run this technological geegaw called here “The McCrory Line!”
The city officials claim the Lynx cost about $3 per trip, but they have rigged the figures. With capital costs included, each rider-trip is about a $20 drain on Charlotte-Mecklenburg taxpayers. And now that the city is running out of spare parts and the warrantees are expiring on the cars, maintenence costs are climbing and adding even more to the cost figures. Compare the $3+ PER MILE cost of operating the Lynx per passenger with the federal allowance for operating a car!
The Lynx continues to drain assets from the CATS, Charlotte Area Transit. Bus lines that once served communities to carry residents in and out of town are being diverted to act as feeders for the light rail or being cut altogether to provide funds for the voracious Lynx. The primary financial beneficiaries of the light rail are the fat-cat entities and interests who own property along the rail line, while the taxpayer’s wallets get drained! Just the South rail line was supposed to generate $1.5 billion in development, much of it like the now defunct Scaleybark area, subsidized by city bribes to developers (whoops, “incentives”) funded by the taxpayers.
The light rail system in Portland, Oregon, has been a gigantic money pit, sucking up funds from most other government services to keep it running. All over the country, wtih very few exceptions, most light rails are financial flops. Commuter vans would be far less expensive and more efficient. Same with hybrid-electric buses for CATS that run on existing streets and don’t required dedicated right-of-ways that cost over FORTY-FIVE MILLION DOLLARS ($45,000.000) a mile to construct!
You need to hear from the experts, not Pat McCrory. And you need to take the time to find out who Pat McCrory is really working for!
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5345
PLEASE don’t do us any more favors like this. Charlotte needs more light rail like a hole in the head–or a hole in the pocket–no matter what Mr. Pat McCrory says! Our NC legislature needs to be acting in the responsible manner that the people who elected them expected, not like the people who were fired by the voters in the last election.
Like US Representative Anthony Wiener’s accidental “Twitter” message, I am sharing this with lots of folks!
Sincerely
Mel Morganstein, Retired Engineer
Charlotte, NC
704-258-3332
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