According to the Hampton Roads blog (click here), support for the light rail system in Virginia Beach is eroding:

“Cost overruns and delays to build Norfolk’s light-rail system are threatening this city’s proposed project, giving ammunition to skeptics, putting proponents on the defensive and eroding support from those in the middle.”

“If there was a vote today, it wouldn’t pass,” Virginia Beach Vice Mayor Louis Jones said. He said the council’s support for light rail is “softening.”

“Norfolk’s troubles come at a critical time in the Beach’s light-rail aspirations. The city is working to close a $40 million deal for a railroad right of way identified for light rail, though state and federal money has yet to come through. Beach leaders have bought land for a train station at Town Center. And much of the city’s future growth planning revolves around extending Norfolk’s line from Newtown Road to the Oceanfront.

A light-rail feasibility study is under way. The City Council has not voted on the project.”

…”Moss said that given Norfolk’s experience, it will be hard to trust cost estimates that will come from the HRT study that is under way.

The projected price of the Norfolk line has soared from $232 million to about $340 million, a 47 percent increase that angry officials said they weren’t told about.

“Whenever they give you a number, what faith will you have in that number?” Moss said. “Very little, I think.”

It is hard not to gloat over the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s infamous Kelo decision. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out recently, the city of New London, Connecticut spent $78 million condemning people’s homes and bulldozing them away, and the development that was supposed to happen in that area has flopped and looks [...]

Light rail plans take a hit in Phoenix Crosscut The contractors, sub-contractors, and elected officials hereabouts who truly love Sound Transit light rail will be disappointed to learn that ... and more »

How dare you, TriMet, concoct a new page on your site around basic rules to ride by.  I mean, many of them sound like (gasp!) some of the public transportation riding etiquette tips I’ve posted in the past!  Why… that means: (Wax on) If you follow proper public transit riding etiquette… (Wax off) then you’re most likely following the rules. Let’s go over the rules TriMet posted on this new page of theirs: 1) Valid and Correct Fare Is Required.  Well, we’ve certainly covered enough personal

I was recently alerted to a cute little website that happens to be keeping a running tally about the crime that is running rampant on Portland's light rail system. Or should we call it, as the...

The Auditor General of the Utah legislature has released a report critical of the Utah Transit Authority, which runs light rail and buses and is building commuter rail in the Salt Lake City-Ogden area. Many of the criticisms will be familiar to Antiplanner readers: UTA has systematically overestimated light-rail ridership by about 20 percent (i) Bus ridership [...]

The state of Minnesota is seriously considering spending $400 million on a high-speed rail line from Minneapolis to Duluth. Duluth? Come on. The Duluth-Superior urbanized area only has about 120,000 people. Duluth isn’t even a part of the Midwest regional rail plan, an ambitious plan to run high-speed passenger trains between Minneapolis, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati, [...]

Houston’s “Wham-Bam Tram” strikes again!

 

Responsible Transportation Forum has posted previously regarding serious safety issues with light rail lines in other cities. Houston is one of the most notorious systems, with incident after incident documenting crashes between the light rail trains and cars, or the trains and pedestrians.

 

See the video from Honolulu Traffic- the video speaks for itself!

 

“And now from Houston “Metros Greatest Hits”:

Houston’s light rail is unofficially known as the Wham-Bam Tram. With more collisions than any other light rail line, you might say that it really got its name by accident. One accident after another. You’ll enjoy this video.”

 

See the post on http://www.honolulutraffic.com/index.html

Parsons Brinckerhoff and partners have to pay $407 MILLION in the BIG DIG fiasco, averting criminal charges.

From Honolulu Traffic:

“Parsons Brinckerhoff, the City’s consultant for its rail plan, and Bechtel Corp., its partner in Boston’s Big Dig will pay $407 million to settle a government lawsuit and avoid criminal charges over the highway tunnel project, part of which collapsed and killed a woman in 2006, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

“It’s clear from the pattern that we saw over a period of time that there was cutting of corners, there was failure to follow up, there was lack of oversight,” Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said Tuesday. “I think there was a desire to move (the project) along and get it done.

“Under the settlement, the state attorney general and the U.S. attorney in Boston agreed not to file criminal charges over Del Valle’s death.”

 

See the related article in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Bechtel, partner settle Big Dig lawsuit”

 

“They did not, however, ban Bechtel or Parsons Brinckerhoff from working for the state in the future. Large construction and engineering companies such as Bechtel thrive on government contracts, and some Massachusetts politicians pushed hard to have the companies barred.As part of the agreement, Bechtel and Parsons Brinckerhoff admitted to several specific oversight failures concerning the collapsed ceiling as well as technical issues involved in construction.”

Aren’t we glad we have them involved in Port of Seattle and Sound Transit projects?

 

 

The federal government will not provide critical funding for the Rail-to-Dulles heavy rail project, U.S. Department of Transportation officials announced yesterday, effectively killing the $5 billion extension of Metro rail along the Dulles corridor. The decision set off a round of caterwauling that could be heard all the way to Richmond by people who said they were surprised, nay, shocked, by the decision. Sen. John Warner is "livid," according to one source quoted by Amy Gardner in the Washin