What Have You Done For Me Lately?

In the "what have you done for me lately?" department this article, "Sounder commuter rail facing growing pains" raises some question over the fiscal responsibility of rail as public transit. The article is from 2006. Since then the southern Sounder route has continued to do well but the route from Everett continues to flounder. How much longer does it make sense to hemorrhage money into this when funding for transit is in short supply? When one of the major obstacles to increasing transit usage is over crowded buses should Sound Transit continue to shell out four times the cost per rider for the relatively few that use an under utilized rail line?

Trolling for Tolls

According to an article in the Seattle Times the Feds [are] OK with I-90 tolls to help pay for new 520 bridge. What's even more interesting is the last statement, "The federal letter said excess toll money could be used to pay for transit, if it's used for the Lake Washington corridor."

Apparently the Feds are all about giving out cash to implement electronic tolling and using variable fares to manage traffic. So, even though the SR520 bridge project is no where near shovel ready the State can bring home a nice slab of pork if they start tolling now rather than after construction as has always been the case in Washington.

So, my question is why not expand this to convert the I-5 Express Lanes (an oxymoron if you ever look at the traffic reports during rush hour). More money for more buses that could actual operate at the speed limit funded by drivers that choose to use the Lexus Lanes. The fat cats using the Lexus Lanes get to work faster and probably write it all off on their federal income tax anyway, right? A win win for everybody. Go HOT Expresso Lanes!