American Dream

The Las Vegas Review Journal, Nevada's largest newspaper, assesses light rail and gets it right -- which is a surprise as most major metropolitan newspapers are boosters for rail and other urban monuments. Las Vegas' regional transportation commission wants to build a 33-mile light-rail line, but the paper editorializes that any claimed benefits of light rail are "delusional."

Of course, the editorial writers had a good source of information, namely the American Dream Coalition's report, Rail Disasters 2005. Based on this report, the Review Journal concluded that light rail "costs a fortune, it doesn't relieve congestion, it never pays for itself and it actually hurts mass transit ridership."

The paper brilliantly summarizes the issue in one paragraph:

Cities with successful bus lines get a sniff of the federal subsidies available for mass transit and want a bite. Consultants and bureaucrats provide inflated ridership estimates. Local and state governments then bury themselves in construction debt, convinced that people will abandon their vehicles for expensive, inconvenient trolley rides. When the riders don't materialize, already high fares are raised to cover operational costs and bus service is slashed. Ridership drops, and taxpayers cover the debts.

The proposed Las Vegas light-rail line, the paper concludes, "is a multi-billion-dollar white elephant that will leave valley taxpayers trampled." Let's hope this reasoning prevails both in Las Vegas and in other regions considering rail construction.