Former Cap Met board chief joins anti-rail fold (Dallas, Austin: 2013, buy)

[scm53]

The city of Austin’s light rail bond proposition has picked up an unexpected foe: longtime Democratic Travis County Commissioner Margaret Gómez

“It’s just unaffordable,” Gómez said of the $1.4 billion, 9.5-mile light rail proposal.

“I have heard from people in South Austin and East Austin,” said Gómez, who since 1995 has represented Precinct 4 in Southeast Travis County. “I ask them, ‘Are you going to use (light rail)?’ and they say no. Perhaps this time around we should think of our pocketbooks.”

[Restrain]

Denton County spent big bucks for light rail. THey have to cook the ridership records to make it appear used, yet you can watch the trains go buy and see less than 5 riders per train. Light rail is a boondoggle. You can accomplish the movement of passengers using a bus system much more economically. Look at Las Vegas, which would be comparable. Their bus system is a multi-tier system with a combination of locals and express busses and is very heavily used.

[Komeht]

Originally Posted by Restrain

Denton County spent big bucks for light rail. THey have to cook the ridership records to make it appear used, yet you can watch the trains go buy and see less than 5 riders per train. Light rail is a boondoggle. You can accomplish the movement of passengers using a bus system much more economically. Look at Las Vegas, which would be comparable. Their bus system is a multi-tier system with a combination of locals and express busses and is very heavily used.

Seriously - this is pretty funny. Central Austin is comparable to Denton County in which way?

[IC_deLight]

Originally Posted by Komeht

Seriously - this is pretty funny. Central Austin is comparable to Denton County in which way?

Cooking records/numbers to rationalize a bad decision?

[Komeht]

Originally Posted by IC_deLight

Cooking records/numbers to rationalize a bad decision?

You got anything more than "I heard it on the internets so it must be true?"

[riaelise]

Originally Posted by Restrain

Denton County spent big bucks for light rail. THey have to cook the ridership records to make it appear used, yet you can watch the trains go buy and see less than 5 riders per train. Light rail is a boondoggle. You can accomplish the movement of passengers using a bus system much more economically. Look at Las Vegas, which would be comparable. Their bus system is a multi-tier system with a combination of locals and express busses and is very heavily used.

Yeah, with the traffic problems we have a BUS system would really work. Right...I don't think so. It takes me 30 minutes to get to my destination via rail. By bus? 45-50 minutes. No thank you.

[lndigo]

Dallas's light rail (much more sophisticated than the proposed rail bond) is more comparable. The rain that goes to Denton is a commuter rail that's more akin to Austin's red line.

[sojourner77]

Dedicated bus lanes = light rail - $1,300,000,000.

[Novacek]

Originally Posted by sojourner77

Dedicated bus lanes = light rail - $1,300,000,000.

Dedicated buses lanes are hundreds of millions of dollars just by themselves.

Plus a hundred million for the bus-dedicated bridge (if you want anything close to a comparable system).

Plus hundreds of millions for the additional buses (which the rail cost includes).

BRT in dedicated lanes _was_ one of the options they considered. It has a lower capital cost, yes, but not nearly as low as you claim. And higher operating expenses/lower capacity.

[Komeht]

Originally Posted by sojourner77

Dedicated bus lanes = light rail - $1,300,000,000.

Simply not true.

To get similar service you'd have to spend almost as much as you would for rail and you would not get:

Same level of service
Attract the same number of riders
spur the same amount of development

And you'd have to spend more in operating expenses where the city is shouldering 100% of the burden for a small savings on CapEx when the city is splitting the bill 50/50.