I'm dropping the "editorial we" for this episode.
Big surprise of the year. As reported by the Albuquerque Journal, the State of NM may not have the funds necessary to maintain its highways. One of the reasons, the costs borne so far of, and the future cost of getting Rail Runner Express into Santa Fe, NM.
The point of this blog is not to say I told you so . . . even though I did. It is to ask why?
I am not an expert in rail planning. What I am is a die-hard railfan and an amateur rail historian with far more rail books read than written. Although I have made a living on transportation-related functions, I am not a professional transportation expert. And even I knew that Rail Runner was a bank-breaker. (I told the Journal, which is breaking the news as though it is actually news.)
It will continue to be a bank-breaker for years to come.
Herein lies what is wrong with most of, if not all of government today. Government leads the people where it wants us to go, not where the people want government to go. In the case of Rail Runner, the NMDOT is just starting to begin to admit that somewhere down the road they will want to ADDITIONALLY tax us for the privelege of having the rail system that was unilaterally decided on by King William I. (Governor and Presidentialist Bill Richardson)
And this from a state that has almost as much natural resource revenue as Alaska.
Don't get me wrong. I like trains, and I like Rail Runner. It is a fun ride, it is useful to some extent, and it works. It is just not cheap.
Passenger Rail is not cheap.
Our politicians (representatives - this is still a representative democracy, isn't it?) just shouldn't keep lying to us about it. If we want the kind of Passenger Rail service we deserve, we will have to subsidize it.
In the case of Rail Runner, it would be cheaper if the politicians weren't regularly in bed with and beholden to the 1) operators, 2) construction firms, 3) equipment manufacturers, 4)railroad that sold us the right-of-way, 5) ad infinitem. (Names omitted by design.)
Do you know the way to Santa Fe? If not, follow the money.
©2007 C. A. Turek - mistertrains@gmail.com
2 comments:
cheap is relative. What is the per-passenger operating subsidy of the rail runner vs. an auto driver? I don't know, but I'm betting the train is cheaper. As for new construction, building a new rail line is cheaper than a new highway . . . but building neither is cheaper still.
The subsidy for Rail Runner is projected to be $10million per year. There is little hope of seeing more than 2500 passengers per day, so the projected per-person subsidy is $10.95. But if we add the cost and spread it out over a reasonable service life, say 15 years, the subsidy skyrockets to almost $30 per passenger.
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