Sunday, September 26, 2010

More bad (but predictable) news for transit investment

The two biggest cities in the US are also working on two of the biggest--and certainly most expensive--rail transit projects. Today brings bad news for both, and unfortunately the bad news was predicable.
In Los Angeles, the Expo Line running west from downtown will get truncated before it reaches the employment center in Culver City. It is also over budget and way behind schedule. I will only comment that transit has to connect places where people need and want to go in order to be successful.
In New York, the 2nd Avenue Subway makes the Expo Line look like chump change as it now will cost $4.5 billion for a couple of miles of service on the east side of Manhattan. It also is way behind schedule and the construction is decimating many businesses along the route.

These two projects combined represent about $5.5 billion of investment for what is now about 7.5 miles of new service.

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