Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’s Headlines blog, which you can also access via email subscription or RSS feed.
Beverly Hills Unified School District files state lawsuit against Metro (P.R. Newswire)
As I posted earlier, it’s Metro’s policy to decline comment on litigation filed against the agency. The above news release is from the School District.
Metrolink raises fares by average of seven percent (Inland Valley Daily Bulletin)
The increase is the largest in the agency’s history and the 11th in the past 14 years, according to agency records. The fare increase, triggered largely by soaring fuel costs, will help cover about a third of a $13-million budget deficit, with the rest of the money coming from the five counties that fund Metrolink (which includes Metro on behalf of L.A. County). One transit advocate backed the increases, as long as there were no service cuts.
Wi-Fi and Amtrak: missed connections (New York Times)
The heavily-promoted wi-fi service in the Northeast Corridor has led to a lot of jokes and angry passengers who say it’s slow and frequently non-existent. Amtrak officials say they’ve heard the complaints and are updating equipment in order to improve service by year’s end.
Expo Line landscaping lunacy (Huffington Post)
Columnist Lisa Novick opines that only California native plants should be used along phase 2 of the Expo Line in order to save water and fit in better with the local environment (or, what’s left of it).
Public transit should be privatized when the Government is serious about supporting transit. You are somewhat mistaken when you assume that operating profits are used to fund transit expansions in the private model of transit. The Goverment still buys property for transit developers in Asia, and for less expansive systems like in Singapore the government foots 50% of the bill for construction with the rest coming from property value speculation at future transit stations, profits make up a very small portion of the capital cost.
And as for the success of Asian transit agencies can be pinned down to multiple reasons beside just being that they are private and that somehow has made a world of difference. By doing that one is ignoring the geographic conditions, politics, urban design, and transit history that has led to their current success.
Back to Metrolink which is what this discussion is about, the system desperately needs some capital infusion. Alot of the right of way in which Metrolink operates is single tracked and owned by private freight railroads who really don’t like sharing their tracks with passengers trains and have no interest in adding double tracks to add capacity for them.