Eugene BRT Commercial

Has anyone heard a train go clickety clack lately?

Transit Trouble Coming from Wall Street

This could cause transit agencies trouble. Basically, transit agencies make deals for cash where they sell their capital assets such as buses and trains then lease them back. Metro could owe millions over those leaseback deals.

Things started to go downhill when AIG ran short of cash after running up billions in losses tied to the housing slump. Its credit ratings were slashed and the firm was on the verge of collapse last month when it was bailed out by the federal government.

The lower credit ratings triggered a clause in the lease-back agreements that require the MTA to either find a new firm to guarantee the deals, or reimburse investors for their down payments and lost tax benefits, — a scenario that could cost the transit agency between $100 million and $300 million.

It hasn't happened yet, but if it does, the agency would have no choice but to slash service drastically. It could also hit BART, Muni, WMATA, and the CTA though there was no hint AIG was involved in those as well.

Many of the nation’s largest transit agencies participated in such deals. Among them are the San Francisco Muni system, the BART rail system in the Bay Area, the Chicago Transit Authority and the Washington, D.C., Metro system.

Signs of the Apocolypse

Lindsey Lohan was on the Acela. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.

Investment Spending

This is what I talk about when I get annoyed that the FTA won't build tunnels and instead points the cost effectiveness of bus rapid transit. While the cost of the tunnel is more, it sure lasts a long time, and should be amortized as such.

And as people like Minnesota congressman James Oberstar have pointed out, the failure to separate government investment from government consumption has perverse effects on how the government spends money, leading it to emphasize projects that cost less on an annual basis but more on a long-term basis, while also leading us to underestimate the benefits to the economy at large of investments in things like infrastructure, basic research, and so on.

As Oberstar said:

Many argue that our current method of accounting biases spending decisions against physical infrastructure by requiring infrastructure to be paid for all at once rather than over its useful life. Thus, infrastructure investments are not judged on their long-term economic return, but rather on a distorted view of their "up-front" impact on the budget.

H/T Bellows

No Typewriters?

With gas prices coming down many transit agencies might be feeling a bit better about their balance sheets. But it's a short term deal. The oil cartel is looking to boost prices again. I feel like we need to invest more in electric transit including trolleybuses on core routes. Unfortunately, a trolleybus revolution does not seem to be upon us. Wires baby wires?

October in San Francisco

Another weekend, another Muni Fail to the game. I got passed by three 22 Fillmore buses before I could get on one. I'm even more convinced now that more buses on routes are not the answer with the constant special events on the weekend. It's a North South subway. Even if the J just went underground at Market Street and continued North to the Marina it would be worth it. In any event, I had another exciting Saturday watching the Texas game and went to the Red Bull Soap Box Derby which was only a few blocks from my house.

Muni LRV at Dolores Park


The Derby had an attendance of 75,000.


People were hanging from windows and fire escapes


Lots of trespassers on the private ROW


Soap Box Vehicles. A hamster wheel that spun and a baseball


Here are a few Videos from the Derby. My favorite was the Death Star, but the fastest I saw was the fire truck....woosh.

Fire Truck



Death Star



Rubicks Cube

Queen Sized Microcosm

Charlotte leaders asked the federal government to pay for their new light rail line, platform extensions and new vehicles for the existing line, and a north commuter line. Given funding constraints at the federal level you can probably guess what happened. The FTA said they didn't have enough money. As discussed previously, there is a 77 year demand for transit expansion in this country and this just proves that there is either going to need to be a serious infusion of funding for transit on the federal level or cities are going to have to come up with the money themselves. Keith Parker at CATS has made these types of comments as well saying:

...Parker said he'll likely brainstorm other ways to raise money so rail lines can be built sooner.
...
With the cost of raw materials rising, Parker believes it's important to build Charlotte's rapid transit in the next decade, rather than by 2035, the finish line in the current plan. If the federal government isn't willing to send more money to CATS, Parker said he may bring the Metropolitan Transit Commission and the Charlotte City Council options.

After years of spending on things other than transit, the Mr. Parker has the right idea about trying to catch up, which would make it cheaper in the long run. Their 10 year wait for the first line did nothing but cause project inflation and almost lost them thier funding source all together with the referendum last year. Yet Pat McCrory, the Mayor, Gubernatorial candidate, and staunch transit supporter, is against the idea of using any funding outside of the current half cent funding stream.

McCrory said this week he doesn't want to consider a new tax or bond to build the transit system sooner. CATS already wants to use some property taxes to build the commuter rail line, and the city of Charlotte is considering the same for the streetcar.

“We'll have to live within the confines of the half-cent sales tax,” McCrory said. “During these economic times we'll have to be both economically and politically pragmatic. And at times, patient.”

In transit funding, patience costs money, and there are other ways to pay for transit projects. Because transit creates value that often isn't credited to it, there needs to be more attention paid to the value is created and capturing it to pay for the project. Putting a cage on it isn't the answer.

Hawaii Fight O

The opposition wants this guy's road plan, which happens to be called EZ way, and if the steel on steel election loses, they expect the FTA to pick up the tab for their elevated freeway. Well as the Mayor's office has said repeatedly, the FTA won't pay for HOT lanes. In fact, Ma Peters had tried to get HOT lanes funded in a recent fight with congress but lost. This is a battleground for transit. The opponents believe that if they can win in places without rail like Honolulu, they can turn the tide against it. And if we ended up using transit money for a freeway given the demand for real transit projects, then we haven't learned anything from the last 60 years.

Could Be Worse

Regular reader and commenter Stephen sent in this story about the last train in Cambodia. It goes about 17km/h (10mph) and transports goods and people. It goes slow enough that riding on the roof doesn't seem that dangerous, even though it still is.

A Reason to Dislike Smart Growth

"all it does is produce Democrats."

It's a bit old. But its related to this and has some funny quotes.

But while he buddies up to residents of Vienna who are aghast at the thought of thousands of new neighbors, Davis -- who supported transit-oriented development when he was chairman of the Fairfax Board of Supervisors -- really has a different concern.

Three Fairfax elected officials told me that Davis explained his opposition to the MetroWest development to them as a matter of party politics: The congressman believes that the people most likely to move into condos and townhouses near a Metro station are -- oh, the horror! -- Democrats.

HT AF