In your non-McDonnell trial related news, Randal O’Toole has a scathing review [1] of Norfolk’s light rail system and the grand ideas forwarded by the Virginian-Pilot to increase ridership:
Planners predicted that Norfolk’s Tide light-rail line, which opened in 2011 60 percent over budget [2] and 16 months behind schedule, would stimulate economic development along its route. But little development is taking place, so the Virginian Pilot has come up with a grand idea: reduce fares by two thirds. That, the paper’s editorial writers guesstimate, should attract 1,000 more riders per day, which they hope will generate the development planners promised.
There are a lot of problems with this proposal, not least of which is the fact that rail fares in Norfolk are already the second-lowest in the country, after Houston’s. Though the nominal fare is $1.50, which the Pilot proposes to cut to 50 cents, actual fares collected in 2012 averaged just 50 cents a ride, compared with 35 cents in Houston but $1.39 in Denver. The national average for low-capacity rail is 98 cents, while the average Hampton Roads bus rider pays 91 cents.
There is a lot more at the link, but here’s Randal’s conclusion:
So the real problem is persuading the Pilot and other opinion leaders in the Norfolk-Virginia Beach area that the Tide rail line is a dismal failure. Not surprisingly, many people don’t care about the facts and want to expand the system [3]. This would be piling insanity on top of insanity. Rail transit makes no sense for the Hampton Roads region.
Insanity has never stopped a bad idea before, and it’s unlikely to do so in this instance. But one can hope.