Tom Downs / Aug 06 2010
For Release Sunday, August 8, 2010
Citiwire.net
I will show my age when I say that I remember the last of the streetcars being ripped up to make way for the automobile. Fifty some odd years latter, it seems every city in America is betting its economic future on new light rail systems. Therein lies the story of the modern American experience with transit.
After throwing transit away, we now want it back. We just don’t want to pay for it.
Public transit — bus and rail — has experienced its first decade-long ridership expansion in over half a century. With people moving into older neighborhoods, with auto use growing ever more expensive, we seemed to be stumbling toward national support for transit.
But national political and economic trends are pointing toward a potentially grim future for the nation’s transit systems. At the operating level, 90 percent of all transit systems report flat or declining local financial support. Ninety percent of transit systems indicate state support for their systems was flat or declining. Costs, in the form of petroleum and electric power, are continuing to rise. Read More »
Thomas Downs / Oct 09 2009
For Release Friday, October 9, 2009
Citiwire.net
There is an old saying that Americans will always do the right thing, but only after they have tried everything else first.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to make the transition. Latest example: visceral opposition to high-speed rail by those who should be thinking more innovatively. Consider Robert Samuelson’s recent column in the Washington Post– “A Rail Boondoggle, Moving at High Speed.” Samuelson cites the usual statistics–that we are an auto culture, that not enough people ride trains, that the costs are high. So, he concludes, President Obama’s commitment to high-speed passenger rail is a fool’s errand.
But Samuelson’s among those who has been playing this song for over 20 years. Their message has turned into a weird anomaly given what is happening around the rest of the globe. Read More »
Tom Downs / Sep 11 2008
For Release Sunday, September 14, 2008
Citiwire.net
For public transit in America, 2008 has produced a vivid “best” and “worst” of times scenario.
After 50 years of sagging ridership and lost stature, buses and transit trains are back in heavy demand. Nationwide ridership is 4.5 percent higher than 2007, with some cities experiencing growth of 10 to 15 percent.
The top reason’s clear: high gas prices. Highway vehicle miles of travel nationwide have taken a 4.5 percent dip in a year — an unprecedented decline even as our population increases.
But sadly, the nation’s transit operators have little chance to celebrate their systems’ new popularity. Read More »