EDITORIAL: Neglecting bus lines for light rail empire building

In a fit of common sense, the Regional Transportation Commission earlier this year voted to beef up the bus system along Maryland Parkway rather than to construct a fiscal black hole, otherwise known as “light rail.”

Upgrading the bus line on the 8-mile route, from McCarran to downtown Las Vegas, will cost $345 million, while the rail option has a price tag of $1 billion — which, predictably, continues to climb steadily skyward.

The decision was based in large part on the fact that the feds are no longer handing out “free” money for local governments to erect transportation monuments to fiscal foolishness — i.e., light rail. But RTC CEO Tina Quigley told the Review-Journal’s Mick Akers in April that the agency could revisit the issue if a “windfall of money” becomes available after the 2020 election, meaning if a Democrat wins the White House. “We will have the ability to reconsider,” she said.

Ms. Quigley might want to peruse a recent Los Angeles Times report on the state of L.A.’s public transit, particularly its buses. Put simply, the city’s bus system is a mess — thanks primarily to billions of dollars diverted to support massively expensive rail projects, a Reason Foundation report concludes.

“The board members, who are political creatures, of L.A. Metro are very interested in building rail lines,” Baruch Feigenbaum of the foundation said, “and not particularly interested in building bus service. Even though, by many metrics, the bus service outperforms the rail, they are building rail and cutting bus service.”

The Times reports that since 2007, Los Angeles transit officials have cut bus service, measured in revenue miles, by 21 percent. Fares are up. Ridership is down by 32 percent. In addition, bus speeds have dropped by more than 12 percent since 1994.

Meanwhile, Christian Britschgi of Reason magazine reports, L.A. rail ridership is also falling, but officials continue “to open new rail extensions.” He notes that “it costs the transit agency $4.54 in subsidies for each unlinked trip taken on a bus, compared to $25.74 Metro spends subsidizing each unlinked rail trip.”

But the fixation with light rail isn’t just about helping those who need public transportation move around town more quickly and efficiently. It’s also about empire building.

“A new light rail project,” Mr. Feigenbaum said, “is something sexy you can point to and say, ‘Constituents, I delivered this to you.’ … Instead of spending resources on folks who have no other way of getting around, we’re spending resources on those who might like to live near a rail line but who are not going to take it.”

Words for Ms. Quigley to remember should she feel the urge to “reconsider” the RTC board’s decision regarding Maryland Parkway.