Do you support Mass Transit? Buses, light rail, trains, etc.?

Do you oppose expanding highway systems?

If so, please complete this questionnaire before wasting our time or your breath:

• List all of the costs involved in acquiring the land for mass transit routes for trains, etc.

• List all costs for buying rolling stock of trains, buses, etc.

• List all maintenance costs of rolling stock

• List all salary and benefit costs for all needed drivers, workers, administrators, etc.

• List all costs of bonds, loans, etc., necessary for implementation.

• Describe all private businesses who have been contacted as participants in implementation, operation, etc.

• Describe why no private businesses are willing to even TRY to make money on such projects.

• Show the difference between all expected revenues and all expenses, which will define the degree of subsidies needed for ongoing operations.

• Show where the subsidies will come from to make up the differences, initially, and on an ongoing basis.

All the same can be applied to other “public works” projects that don’t make money, like the pie-in-the-sky fad of building new sports arenas where there is no chance of ever running them at a profit, so taxes must make up the differences for building them and running them.

Basically, if private industry can’t make a profit on them without ongoing subsidies, any alternatives should fall under something like “truth in lending” laws !

email , Subject= "Mass Transit: Fallacy and Fiction"

Back to plusaf's Home Page

---