from my Sacramento Bee op ed 12/19:
Despite its current financial woes and questionable ridership, Regional Transit is plunging ahead with an expensive plan to extend light rail north.
As other agencies rein in their budgets, RT is preparing to spend even more taxpayer moneyand expand a system that is already grossly overfunded, subsidized, underutilized and plagued by crime.
While ground was broken in October for the "Green Line" to the airport, RT estimates it will be 10 years before it is operational. The line will originate at the proposed regional transportation center and the downtown railyard, continue north along Seventh Street before reaching Township 9 – a future development of 3,000 residences, offices and retail. This line is expected to begin operating in November, according to RT.
RT general manager Mike Wiley has said, "Better to get these projects in place now. It will be more expensive later."
Wiley's comment suggests he has expertise in bureaucracy but not in basic economics.
Regional Transit has been mismanaged since the 1970s. That's when a well-balanced board of directors – composed of private citizens and public representatives – was replaced with a board consisting solely of City Council members and county supervisors, leaving no citizen or business representation on the board.
While RT's budget has exponentially increased since the 1970s, ridership has not. As the board began to change, politicians added mandatory social planning to public transit, creating mandatory government subsidies, eventually turning RT into a rolling welfare system for those who can't and won't pay for their ride.
there's more....