Once you start building trains for “economic development” reasons — the primary motive behind Mecklenburg County’s train dreams — where does it end?
Do you go as far as Boston and propose putting a casino on a commuter rail line, in order to ramp up ridership? If not, why not? They clearly think it is a good idea in Boston:
“If you have a tourist-destination gaming facility, I could see a tremendous amount of people getting on a train in Boston to go to the beach and go gambling,” said state Rep. Stephen Canessa (D-New Bedford).
Canessa and state Sen. Joan Menard (D-Somerset) have proposed the idea to Gov. Deval Patrick, who visited the South Coast yesterday to unveil a $1.4 billion plan to extend rail service to Fall River and New Bedford by 2016.
The construction of a casino could help fill a huge funding gap in Patrick’s rail plan, which currently lacks a specific revenue source for construction or future operation of the 50-mile commuter line.
Hmmm, how about a lake-front casino near the proposed Mt. Mourne stop in Iredell County? That’d ramp up ridership on CATS’ 30-mile North corridor line, right?
Right. Call it the Gambler Express.
