Along with bailing out the world's credit markets (something I wish the Senate never had to vote to do), the Senate last night voted to provide the DC/Maryland/Virginia based "Metro" system a stable funding stream. All I can say is that it is about time.
As many of you have read here before, one of the few things that I believe the Federal government ought to be doing routinely is to help enable interstate commerce (well, it's not just me. Guys like James Madison and Alexander Hamilton also agreed). Doing so means investing in transportation---whether we're talking the interstate highway system, Amtrak, commuter buses.
The Metro system in the DC area is critical to the smooth function of our nation's capital. When the orange line is down, the whole region seems to come to a stop. I saw a statistic the other day that said that 85% of metro-rail's riders HAVE ACCESS to an automobile--talk about a successful mass transit effort!
But there simply needs to be more of it. It must be extended to Tyson's Corner with a spur to Dulles. Why one can't metro into Georgetown remains a mystery to me (well, not really. The love humanity, hate humans, Katherine Graham, limousine liberal crowd who lives there simply did not want to provide an easy way for the criminal element to get there). I'm not sure what Maryland's metro needs are, but I'm sure they exist.
Point is, Metro works. It does what it is supposed to do; it takes people off the roads and delivers them efficiently to their places of business. We should encourage more of this kind of success.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
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3 comments:
I couldn't disagree more. Pork Pork Pork. Is it the federal governments job to get federal workers to the office? What about BART, what about MARTA, what about the subways in NY or Chicago or any mass transit system in just about any megalopolis???
Raise the price of tickets or put folks on top of the train sorta like a train slug line.
This is just another earmark that found itself a bill
Sorry, we don't see this similarly. It is the federal government's job to "promote the general welfare" and to regulate and encourage interstate commerce. Transportation systems fall squarely into this category.
What about BART, MARTA, and other transit systems? I'd have no problem with them receiving federal funds.
Agree with CW on Fed support of Mass Transit systems. The Metro is part of the reason I am excited to move back to the NCR. Good mass transit is something that SoCal sorely lacks. We need to expand investment in this sort of infrastructure to improve rail links among all major cities on the east coast.
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