American Politicians and Mass Transportation: Massive Failures, Massive Costs, Minimal Benefit

We have talked hundreds of times how the Washington political class and other American politicians are very, very poor when it comes to executing a program efficiently, effectively, on time, and on budget. Even if a project gets completed, it is always late, overly expensive, and falls short of fulfilling the original promise.

Today let’s focus on mass transportation and the projects that politicians have failed so miserably at or continue to fail:

- Several decades ago, Washington and Massachusetts got together to manage a mass transportation called the “Big Dig.” The purpose of the Big Dig was to get rid of the old, overhead roadways that hovered over the streets of Boston and build tunnels and roads under the city to bury the roads underneath the ground.

The project was supposed to cost several billion dollars but after years of delays and cost overruns, it ended up costing the American taxpayer well over $20 billion, about tenfold more than the originally promised cost. And the quality was not that good to boot since at least one driver was killed when part of the roof fell onto her car and killed her.

- Washington politicians and the government agencies they oversee have been operating the AMTRAK train system for decades. And despite that experience, AMTRAK continues to be a money losing operation every year, it has not grown its coverage for years, and has killed more people over the past few years than have died in airline crashes in the country. Expensive to operate, unprofitable to operator, and dangerous to operate, very sad.

- Early in the Obama era, Obama had this vision of building out a new high speed rail system across the country. We proved how stupid the program was in our area down here in Tampa Bay from a cost, convenience, and usage perspective. Obama’s program never got off the ground because it was too expensive and too useless to buildout.

- The state of California was going to show the country how to do mass transportation and high speed rail the right way. The governor at the time, Jerry Brown, and the Democrat controlled legislature threw all they had into the program. It was eventually going to be a high speed rail line from northern California to southern California, allowing travelers to avoid the notoriously bad and crowded California highways.

But despite extensive planning and the actual purchase of land for the right of way for the tracks, the program eventually collapsed onto itself: bad plans, cost overruns, contractor scandals, etc. Thus, a state and its politicians who were really dedicated to mass transportation found that even they couldn't do it.

But these past failures are now joined by two new failures, the first of which is in Hawaii:

• Hawaiian politicians thought it would be a great idea to build a mass transportation rail line from the western suburbs of Honolulu into the city.
• But like Washington politicians, they are failing miserably in this transportation project also.
• The cost of the project has almost doubled in cost form the original estimate of $5 billion to a current estimate of $9 billion.
• The city started the project without first having a complete set of plans for the project which required almost 100 contracts to be redone as the project proceeded, causing delays.
• A judge halted to project for over a year when it was in conflict with sacred Hawaiian burial grounds.
• An audit report in 2016 found that there were hundreds of millions of dollars unaccounted for.
• The planners built the beginning tracks too close to power lines so additional costs were incurred to move those power lines to overcome the bad planning.
• The quality of some steel cables that were inside precast concrete pieces will now have to be closely monitored for 20 years since some of them have already failed.
• The Federal Government is now withholding its share of the project expenses, given how poorly the project is proceeding.
• Another state audit concluded that officials misled the public about the effort’s shaky financials.
• A grand jury is now investigating shady contractor dealings.
• Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell has publicly acknowledged that there were “crucial missteps” but is still optimistic.
• As costs rose, politicians increased an excise tax on businesses and increased a current hotel tax.
• Ten years after the project started it is still not complete and the current boss of the operations somehow now thinks he can finish the project by 2025 without an increase than the current cost estimates, which seems doubtful given the history of the project.

What a mess, what a typical mess when it comes to politicians trying to build a simple rail line. The sad part of this Hawaiian transportation effort is that this is only a 20 mile rail line. It is not the length of California, which failed, it is not the length of what Obama wanted, which failed, and certainly doesn't have the mileage of AMTRAK which fails every day.

But it is not just rail line mass transportation efforts that politician always screw up. Consider the failure of the mass transportation electric bus effort that is failing in Albuquerque, New Mexico:

• Central Avenue is the main street going through Albuquerque, a six lane road that includes part of the historic Route 66.
• But despite being the main thoroughfare, the traffic on the road has been greatly reduced because of the failed Albuquerque Rapid Transit (ART) system effort.
• ART was originally to be a light rail line but in 2011 the city politicians gave up the rail idea and turned to a “bus rapid transit” approach that was based on dedicated bus lines throughout the city.
• The original plans estimated that there would be 15,000 daily riders using the system’s 19 stations.
• While the former mayor called ART a “game changer” the current mayor calls it “a bit of a lemon.”
• On Central Avenue, ART took over most of the street’s traffic lanes, causing car traffic to get get squeezed down to a single lane each way and resulting in shoppers and diners going elsewhere to avoid the congestion.
• A restaurant on Central Avenue, the Frontier, has seen its business drop 10% and has stopped hiring because of the decrease in customers coming by because of the reduced access caused by the bus lanes.
• An ART spokeswoman told the local newspaper that some businesses may see a 40% decrease in business because of the failed bus project.
• A car wash owner claims that his monthly revenue has dropped thousands of dollars and a burger place went out of business, causing 20 workers to become unemployed.
• The dedicated ART bus lanes got rid of left runs on many side streets making access difficult and making the drop in business described above a reality.
• The bus lanes are empty and unused today, 16 months after the first bus went on line, despite spending $23 million for a fleet of 18 all electric buses.
• Turns out the only half of the ordered buses ever showed up and those that were delivered had problems with their batteries, air conditioning, brake systems, and doors.
• The new mayor finally decided to take the electric buses off the streets, return them to the manufacturer, and buy old fashioned buses that run on petroleum.
• But those buses will not be ready for use until at least 2020, more than a year from now.
• In the meantime, even though there are no buses, the cost of the project is now at least 33% beyond its original $100 million budget,
• Without bus riders supporting the project, the city has had to take money out of its general revenue fund which has led to an overall city deficit of $20 million.

So now in Albuquerque, the costs are higher than expected, the project’s plans have made traffic worse in the downtown area, businesses are suffering because of the bus plans, and yet no buses are running, no people are using the buses, and the project is delayed at least for another year plus.

From the Big Dig to AMTRAK to Obama’s dreams to California to Hawaii to New Mexico, every mass transit project that American politicians touch become a self made disaster: under performing, over budget, safety issues, and other burdens on businesses and taxpayers. There has to be a better way, a way that does not allow politicians or government bureaucracies to get in the way and make a mockery of common sense and execution.

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