Light Rail Construction Impresses, Funding Depresses

I've been watching the the downtown Portland Mall Light Rail Construction with curiosity.  Impressiveness often comes to mind at the number of things that have been planned for, accommodated and altered slightly.  Overall the project, as light rail construction often goes, is succeeding according to the plan.

But let me take a step back again and just make some other observations from a high level.  Between the almost 2 miles of rail downtown and the 6 miles out on the green line section the cost of the project is over $500,000,000.  That is five hundred million plus dollars for a mere 8 miles of light rail.  Amazingly that isn't that bad, as the cost per mile for each passenger comes down pretty quickly once revenue service starts.

So we here in Portland have a $500 million light rail project getting us connected downtown to Clackamas Town Center and expanding future prospective throughput - sort of.

But what did the $500 actually cost us?  How much has the city paid?  How much did the feds?  How much bureaucracy did we have to pay to get that $500 million cleared.

I'll make a grand sweeping judgement and statement now.  I'd bet a solid grand (I sure would love the opportunity to at least) that NS, UP, BNSF, CSX, Bombardier, or any of the other experienced rail companies, if given a vested interest in the manufacture and success - AND ESPECIALLY the operations of the line - could have done it for less by the tune of about 10-20%.  I would even extend the distance I'm out on a limb here and say they could probably have given us more frequency of service to boot.

My final statement about this situation is, the Feds need to step further out of transportation planning and cut their taxes they take and let the states step back in and fill that gap.  At least until some time in the future when people take back their respective systems (something that could and most likely would happen at the state level, for many if not most states) and privatize them to create a more sustainable, customer driven, capable, and more intelligently managed systems (mind you, current management isn't bad, but their priorities are often the opposite of riders and often misaligned with actual demand).

Union Pacific Creates Magnificence

The Kate Shelley Bridge in Boone is being replaced with a new bridge.  At a small price (compared the the craziness of costs above) of only $43 million Union Pacific is building this new bridge that will be about 2600ft, about 180+ feet tall and handle traffic on two tracks at 70mph.  That is truly impressive.  When a company like this, builds something this massive, this great, and no cost to taxpayers and no interruption to daily life I am impressed, honored, and I offer my respect to these great men and women.  What they accomplish is what makes America great, what keeps our economic wealth going, and prevents our utter collapse that we Americans seem intent on creating these days.

For more information on this awesome bridge check out these links:

Hopefully we'll be on the right track again in the near future!  Hopefully.  Big Smile [:D]