Just ran across a piece that the Reason Public Policy Institute distributed on an apparent shift in Capitol Hill sentiment regarding light-rail projects. Published in the Orange County Register, the piece refers to the decision of the chairman of a U.S. House subcommittee to block a $500 million federal grant to Seattle’s light-rail fiasco/project. The member in question, Rep. Ernest Istook of Oklahoma, reportedly said that such rail-transit proposals were often political “status symbols” rather than serious efforts to move people and goods.

RPPI put some numbers behind Istook’s intuition. It turns out that it costs about six cents per mile, on average, to move a person on a highway. It costs about $2.75 to move that person one mile on light rail ? 40 times as much.

Note to Charlotte, Triangle, and Triad officials expecting gobs of federal manna to shower down all over their choo-choo train tracks: it appears that Heaven is having second thoughts.