Re: Finally! Metro to Centreville!
Posted by:
Bob Bruhns
()
Date: June 12, 2013 06:12AM
NO. The financial disaster of the Dulles Rail / Silver Line should have taught us all a lesson: start with BUS, and graduate to rail when that becomes appropriate.
Put a temporary bus road into the dedicated right of way where the train will eventually go, run the bus on that, and build up those population and business centers. When the ACTUAL ridership (not the estimates, which are always made-to-order) gets to the point where bus will not be able to sustain it, THEN convert to rail. In real terms, this will happen in steps of about 3 miles each.
THAT WAY, you pay as you go, instead of running up the debt until you choke the whole region with the debt and payments for generations, as we are already seeing with the Dulles Rail / Silver Line. We are already bailing it out with $300 million in FY2014, just so that the Dulles Toll Road tolls don't rise quite as much as planned, for a few years, And then, much more will be needed to keep those tolls below an explosion point. And this rail line hasn't even OPENED yet!
Use your heads, people. Don't fall for nonsense from pen name ghosts from some public relations company. Don't sell your great-grandchildrentinto debt slavery for this nonsense! And don't dedicate your entire region's economy to fund a bank!
Start with BUS, build a BASE, and THEN upgrade to rail in the same dedicated rights of way as the BUS used. SIMPLE!!!