The Cato Institute’s Randal O’Toole offers up a devastating assessment of the proposed Charlotte – Mooresville commuter rail line. His whole 14-page paper is a must read. Here are his conclusions:
The Red line is an expensive, risky project that is likely to produce few benefits for anyone other than the contractors who build it. Tax-increment financing proposed by the business/finance plan for the project would divert funds from existing agencies that depend on property taxes, forcing them to choose between cutting services or raising tax rates. By significantly raising tax rates, special assessment districts would politically limit the ability of other agencies to raise taxes.
Bus transit can produce the same benefits as the Red line at a far lower cost. Highway expansions can do far more to relieve congestion than rail transit and can be largely selffunding. In the long run, rail transit will be seen as an obsolete technology for moving passengers, and cities that build it will regret it, especially as the cost of maintaining the lines proves to be never ending.
H/t: Sam H.
