Randal O’Toole for Downsizing Government: A strong case can be made that — with the possible exception of New York — American cities shouldn’t restore deteriorating rail transit systems and instead should shut them down as they wear out and replace them with buses where demand for transit still exists. …

First, restoring obsolete transit is not the same as modernizing transit. Electric rail transit was developed in the 1880s and 1890s, and was largely superseded by buses in the 1920s… Outside of New York City, which…may be the only place in America where rail cannot easily be replaced by buses, this is a waste of money.