[PRCo] New Systems

[Fred Schneider]

I think there may have been some new systems that were honestly  
created to fill a transit need and others that were built simply  
because cities A, B and C were getting money and therefore, we too  
must get some of that green folding stuff.   Of course the planning  
documents filed with UMTA for the FTA will never honestly disclose  
the motives.   Therefore we can only go back and look with 20-20  
hindsight at whether or not the project made any sense at all.

PATCO's Lindenwold line made a lot of sense in 1968 and it recovered  
initially about 95% of its operating costs.  It worked because there  
was only one congested bridge into downtown Philadelphia.   Its  
utility has declined because of politically inspired fare increases  
to support non-transit issues in Philadelphia and because of  
declining employment in the city over the last 40 years.   Ridership  
peaked at 40,000 and has declined to 32,600 causing PATCO to use  
start up riders of 20,000 to make themselves look good today!

San Diego's initial line was an excellent choice.   The same goes for  
the first Houston line.   I would have trouble panning Calgary when  
you see the share of the riders in the city that use the rail  
system.   One would have a hard time proving that DC's Metro isn't a  
success when you find that they are moving nearly a million riders on  
a typical weekday and are number two in the U. S. to New York City.   
Why are they successful?  Simply because government tends to locate  
all its offices near each other where they can have meetings.  And  
Lobbyists need to be there to tell government types how they want you  
and I to be governed.  They make downtown work.    Outside of New  
York and San Francisco, it is probably the only real downtown in the  
United States.   Maybe we can include Chicago...   Maybe...

For those of you who have no idea how bad DC has gotten:   my friend  
Dick Kotulak (and I think he is on this list) told me two weeks ago  
that his wife will not come home from Norfolk on weekends any longer  
to suburban Virginia.   She waits for a lull in traffic in the midday  
on Monday.   My wife scheduled a Daughters of the American Revolution  
tour from Lancaster, PA to Williamsburg VA and the bus company routed  
it northwest to Harrisburg, then southwest on US 15 through  
Gettysburg to Interstate 64 and then east through Richmond to  
Williamsburg in order to avoid traffic in Washington.   And I'm  
seriously considering the next time I have to go to western North  
Carolina, using the Pennsylvania Turnpike and I-70 to Washington PA  
then I-79 to I-81 to avoid the traffic that backwashes over onto I-81  
north of Roanoke.    Why, because metropolitan Washington's  
population grew by as much as dumping a city of Pittsburgh on it  
since Metro opened.   (You knew I'd get on topic, didn't you.)   And  
they're all people dedicated to telling us how to live our lives.

On the other hand, if you asked me to justify Edmonton, Tacoma, San  
Jose, or Los Angeles' Green Line without access to an airport, or  
Buffalo with passenger counts that don't match what I see with my own  
eyes, or Miami with 40,000 people on a double ended line in a Metro  
area the size of Toronto ....   I don't think I really need to  
elaborate, do I.