We All Pay for the Framework

Ryan of Prior Lake wrote:

“We have mass-transit buses. Even if we tried, we could not waste enough money to spend $800 million on buses and bus lines. If buses were free to everyone, we would waste less money [than is spent on] these light-rail lines and reduce congestion caused by the trains themselves. Trains in Minneapolis are a novelty, not a real mass-transit option.”

Ryan, I suspect your great-grandfather may have looked at the first automobile and said to his horse, “Cars in Minneapolis are a novelty, not a real masstransit option.” Circumstances have changed. Also, I don’t understand your suggestion that a train carrying 300 people creates more congestion than the four or five buses it would take to carry them.

And Glenn of Andover wrote:

“Light rail is the biggest boondoggle that a voracious and corrupt state government has ever come up with. It does absolutely nothing to reduce congestion on the roads, since it doesn’t carry anything but people.”

You’re right, Glenn. Ho Ho and Twinkie delivery trucks will still have to use the roads.

Despite the above examples, there are some legitimate arguments against light rail. But I believe those arguments are overwhelmingly outweighed by those in favor of the light-rail network, given the forecasts of an additional 1 million people in the seven-county metro area over the next few decades. There’s no way we can build enough roads to accommodate that growth.