Train's Only DeLayed

From the Chronicle comes a story that doesn't exactly break my heart: there's a lack of federal funding for expansion of Houston's accident-prone boondoggle of a light rail system. I guess that for the nonce, we're luckier than Charlotte!

I am furious at how nearly every aspect of this was handled by our elected officials and the news media here in Houston. The Chronicle and our city government spared no effort selling this plan to the public. After an intense propaganda campaign, the initial 7.5 mile section was built. (I think polling indicated that it wouldn't necessarily survive a vote.) It was built and had barely opened when another propaganda campaign cum vote gave the A-OK to something like another 70 miles. The shiny new train did the trick, I suppose.

The rapidity of the post-construction vote occurred for reasons that would be patently obvious to nearly anyone who has had to drive in Houston: (1) Nearly the entire 7.5 mile stretch of rail lies on heavily-traveled city streets. (2) Houston grew up with the automobile: practically everyone has to drive to get to work. (3) I've been here over a decade, so I feel comfortable saying this: Houstonians are some of the most incautious drivers I've seen outside Massachusetts! In short, they had to get that referendum passed before anyone wised up to the safety hazard! As the Wikipedia article on our light rail system puts it, the train isn't called things like the "Wham-Bam Tram" and the "Streetcar Named Disaster" for nothing.

The rail line has had an astonishingly high crash rate when compared to other light rail systems in the United States, averaging more than one incident per week. The first occurred on November 19, 2003 as the system was still under testing prior to opening. As of April 22, 2004, the collision rate was calculated as being 25 times the U.S. average, with 36 accidents up to that date. In mid-July, the line broke 50 crashes, although until that point, all but one incident was considered to be the fault of drivers and pedestrians rather than METRORail train operators. In September, METRORail set a new record for the most accidents in a year, passing San Francisco Muni's 2001 record of 61 crashes over 73.3 route miles—nearly 10 times the length of the Houston Red Line. The trend since at least April has been a slow decrease in the frequency of crashes, but it remains high.

Even setting aside my pro-capitalist principles for the sake of argument, I would have had to vote against it. Houston can't have subways: they'd flood very easily. Some kind of elevated line would be the way to go -- provided, of course, it were built, owned, and operated privately. Sadly, government coercion has caused this thing to be built so numbskulls -- and I like to think these are the ones who voted for it -- can ignore the simple-simon signals and traffic dividers to make left turns in front of approaching trains.

But enough of that. What I'm really steamed about is something even more important I read in that newspaper story. Get a load of this:

Houston has long struggled to obtain federal funding for its light rail system, the first 7 1/2 -mile piece of which opened last year. Metro paid for that initial $324 million segment on its own after U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, wrote a provision into law barring any federal grants because the transit authority had not obtained voter approval to build rail. [italics added]

After Metro passed a 2003 referendum calling for an 80-mile rail network by 2025, DeLay and other congressional critics dropped their opposition [italics added] to federal funding, though they have continued to voice concerns over whether investing in light rail is a wise use of taxpayer dollars.

Wow! Is Tom DeLay a champion for capitalism or what? Rather than fighting to dismantle this porkbarrel funding apparatus (or even speaking out against it), he adds an additional layer of regulatory cruft to our economy. Why? Because he apparently has some kind of emotional issue with light rail, but either doesn't know how or doesn't care to fight it on principle. He then shows us his intransigent respect for our individual rights by indicating from the start that he'll back down if the measure passes a vote! Straight democracy triumphs over individual rights once again!

I have to admit a fair amount of ignorance about DeLay. I've tended to like him a little just because his very existence is enough to put most lefties into a high dudgeon. But after this story, my eyes are open. I've just lost a great deal of respect for this man.

-- CAV

Updates

2-9-05 Added a bit more to my explanation of why the expansion of METRORail was brought to a vote so quickly.
4-3-05 Corrected a typo. ("second vote" should have been replaced with "post-construction vote" long ago.)