OPINION:
What’s not to like about light rail, except what it costs? There are too many cars on the street, and buses stink. Trolley technology has been making a comeback, if only for a streetcar ride down memory lane. But the greatest obstacles to the liberal resurrection of the trolley are not conservatives, but other liberals.
Maryland’s Purple Line, a light-rail project in the suburbs north of the nation’s capital, would connect the wealthy neighborhoods of Bethesda in Montgomery County to New Carrollton in Prince George’s County. Environmentalists are throwing a tantrum because the trains might disturb a tiny shrimp found in Rock Creek, which cuts across the District of Columbia. The lawyers are lining up, drooling.
Some liberals — and indeed some conservatives — don’t like the automobile very much. A car represents the freedom to go anywhere anytime without depending on the government. The left is always on the hunt to get everyone out of their cars, whether with a carrot of heavily subsidized alternative transportation, or the stick of higher taxes on motoring.
Al Gore, with his fondness for hyperbole, wants to eliminate the internal combustion engine and be done with it, calling it the enemy of mankind. But the black soot that once erupted from tailpipes in noxious clouds is not what’s bothering environmentalists. Engineers have eliminated that problem, and the only gas a modern car leaves behind in appreciable amounts is carbon dioxide, which is left behind by a trotting horse or a jogging human as well. Since the car must go, people who have to get around will have to take a train. The new train tracks must cross the territory of the snail darter in Tennessee, the beach mouse in Alabama and the red-legged frog in California, and therein lies conflict.
Maryland’s Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail says the Purple Line threatens three species of freshwater amphipods: the Hay’s Spring, the Kenk’s and the sextarius, which are endangered under Maryland law. They’re demanding “environmental-impact statements” to delay the trains.
What would be more useful is an honest appraisal of the economic impact. The Purple Line with its $2.4 billion capital cost, according to the Maryland Transit Authority, would boost daily ridership by 11,800 in 2040. This number is not very impressive against a projected total ridership of 1.5 million by 2040. That’s $2.4 billion to gain less than an extra 1 percent of ridership, unless, of course, the convenience of the rails attracts larger numbers than expected.
We’re sympathetic to the plight of the shrimp. We’re sympathetic to the plight of motorists stranded on the streets that become parking lots during the rush hour, too. Maryland’s planners should go back to the drawing board lest their schemes turn taxpayers purple with apoplexy.
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