Another unneeded trolley proposal

Lancaster PA - From a city that has a transit system screaming for more operating funds or they'll have to cut service and raise fares, we have yet another mayor looking for a political legacy by trying to saddle the transit operation with an unneeded transit project. The Lancaster New Era reports on this latest trolley plan.

They will be applying for Federal funding in the coming weeks, already have state funding secured from Governor "Fast Eddie" Rendell yet have no idea if people will even ride the line.

And again, it's the same old reasons being cited from the pro-rail handbook. Cleaner air, less congestion and all the development that will happen. The Lancaster plan is doing exactly what shouldn't be done which is to literally build the line in an empty field and hope people will come.

There are no real plans to pay for the operation of the line. One can easily figure out that Lancaster's Mayor, Rick Gray, is planning on dumping the trolley line onto the local transit system as soon as possible.

The fact that Lancaster's TA is screaming for more operating money, the last thing they need saddled with is an expensive toy that is designed strictly for development purposes. That development, I might add, will be heavily taxpayer subsidized as is the case with just about all of the other rail development and is never admitted until it's too late to stop the project.

The pro-rail crowd is already rallying around this plan since it will slap a rail line down. The rhetoric has already started about how much better things will be if the residents just support this plan. What they aren't telling the residents is that their taxes will skyrocket to help pay for it.

I've ridden Lancaster's buses and they don't have riders tripping themselves to get on board. Building a trolley line that runs in empty fields isn't going to boost ridership on the system. All that will happen is that bus service will be cut so that the trolley line (which has to run since Fed money is involved) can be operated.

A Lance goes out to Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray for pushing a project that is designed more for political legacy than moving people. It won't bring the development he claims unless he forces the taxpayers to heavily subsidize private developers through tax breaks, grants and often unpaid low interest loans.