Health & Fitness
Can We Afford Light Rail? People Prefer Cars, Won’t Pay True Cost Trains
Everybody loves the train, but no one wants to pay for it. Besides most of us won't even use it. The cost of the train in the SW metro will cost residents of Woodbury higher taxes.
An article floating around Facebook and Twiiter from MinnPost discusses some of the hurdles to bringing lightrail to the Southwest line which would run from Eden Prairie to Minneapolis. It’s titled: ”Southwest LRT could still be derailed” – you can read the entire article here: http://tinyurl.com/6944ll6.
Many of us are opposing the expansion of light rail primarily due to cost. Even during prosperous economic times, riders are unwilling to pay the price that would actually defray the cost of running the train. House Majority leader, Matt Dean, recently described how they would have to charge about $35. for a sandwich to bring in enough revenue to cover the cost of running a train. Even the trains that run along the East Coast run at a loss and being part of the East Coast urban sprawl, you would think there would be a demand for rail transportation.
But the fact is that the government ends up subsidizing rail lines, so even the southwest line, were it to go through, would end up increasing my taxes here in Woodbury because the state and/or federal government will have to continue subsidizing it. Not to mention, the hidden, unexplained costs of running a train with federal money and federal accounting, planning and other inefficient, costly practices and regulations that are never discussed when the State is discussing how it can jump through hoops to get the money in the first place.
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Besides the fact that many of us need our cars for our work! Riding a train would be a hugely inefficient way for most of us to get to where we need to go on a daily basis. I acknowledge that commuter traffic is an issue along I-94 going to and from the Metro cities, but locals are able to find ‘short cuts’ on back streets and roads that others don’t seem to know about. In addition, the requirements of work and daily life require that I have a vehicle to use.
So, please write or call your legislators and ask them to STOP the LIGHT RAIL! We cannot afford it! Read more on local issues at: http://exposethetruth.info/
