Today’s Transit Dreams May Come True — 78 Years From Now
Reconnecting America's new Transit Space Race map shows the abyss between the unbridled demand for transit and the very limited funding for it.
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Every year, Reconnecting America comes out with a map showing the “Transit Space Race” for that year, with all the fixed-guideway projects that are in any phase of realization, from a “twinkle in the eye” to under construction....
“The 2013 edition of the map identifies 721 projects in 109 regions, up from 643 projects found in 109 regions in 2011,” the press release says. Then it seamlessly, almost coyly, meanders its way to the real point of the project: to illustrate the desperate need for more federal transit funding.
“Of the current projects, 497 have a cost estimate,” RA says. “The total required to build just those 497 projects would be $250 billion. At the current rate of federal transit investment, it would require more than 78 years to construct those projects.”
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According to Reconnecting America, fixed-guideway projects on the map include heavy rail, commuter rail, light rail, streetcars, various technologies such as cog railways, and those bus rapid transit lines that have more than 50 percent of their right-of-way dedicated to bus-only lanes. The map does not include statewide projects such as the California high-speed rail effort.
I'll do it for $249 billion, and only take 70 years. With the restriction that KIN still will have service! :giggle:
