BuckeyeBlog

It’s not even a certainty to be built yet, but already politicians are jockeying to turn the proposed passenger rail network into even more of a pork barrel project than it already is. Officials in Butler County (and other Ohio counties) are trying to make sure any passenger train includes stops in their jurisdiction. These officials make grand promises that such stops will produce jobs, economic development, tax revenue, and cotton candy for everyone in the area (OK, so no one has promised the cotton candy … yet).

These promises are often based on nothing more than wishful thinking and overly-optimistic economic development “studies” that predict exactly what policymakers want, not what is actually likely to happen. A great example of this is found in Cincinnati’s Riverfront Transit Center, where, at its “May 2003 dedication, local, state and federal officials proudly predicted it soon would handle up to 500 buses and 20,000 people per hour during sporting or other riverfront events. The day was coming, they added, when passenger trains tied into the center also would zip along the riverfront.” Did any of that happen? Nope: “One day last week, however, the midday volume at the center was zero buses – the same as it is most hours of most days. Anyone waiting for a train would have a long wait, considering that there are no tracks yet.”

It’s a pretty safe bet than any passenger rail stop in Butler County or any other Ohio county will be more akin to the Riverfront Transit Center than the bustling economic center predicted by county officials.

As Randal O’Toole’s report shows, passenger rail is a boondoggle in and of itself. Once you get local politicians trying to steer pork to their jurisdictions, it will cost taxpayers even more.

Tags: passenger rail

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 2:59 pm and is filed under Accountable Government. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.