Here’s one that I know Michael Barone will enjoy: An op-ed from a New Mexican mayor on the disastrous, money-losing boondoggle of a rail line between Albuquerque and Santa Fe — the “Rail Runner.” A few key numbers from the piece:
The train’s operating expenses are $23 million per year — covered in part by a federal grant that is expiring. The train’s revenues are just $3.2 million per year.
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The principal and interest on the project comes to $18 million per year, until two balloon payments come due next decade, amounting to about half a billion dollars.
Mayor Lawrence Abraham of Los Ranchos de Albuquerque writes:
So here we have a project that is losing 95 percent of cost. Note that this isn’t high-speed rail, but also that every single one of President Obama’s vaunted high-speed rail lines is its a potential repeat of this disaster. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
