EDITORIAL: Add it to the list of urban mass transit boondoggles

Supporters of building a billion-dollar light-rail system along Maryland Parkway hold out hope that the plan will come to fruition even though local transportation officials rejected the option more than two years ago. Let’s hope such optimism is unwarranted, however, as the evidence keeps on mounting that highly touted mass transit projects are too often a massive bust for taxpayers.

The latest fiasco comes courtesy of St. Louis.

The St. Louis Loop Trolley, with three cars, was envisioned in the 1990s and supposed to revive the city’s long history with streetcars, which were phased out there by 1966. By 2010, the project was in line for millions in federal funding and backers promised a boon for local businesses along the proposed 2.2-mile line. (Sound familiar?)

Yet by the time the line opened in 2018, it was six years behind schedule and $10 million over budget, reason.com reports. Supporters had sold the deal with inflated ridership and revenue estimates, of course, a common tactic. The Riverfront Times in St. Louis noted that the trolley was projected to generate about $400,000 a year in ticket sales, but brought in only $32,000 over the first 12 months.

Within a year, trolley operators were seeking additional taxpayer money. County officials wouldn’t pony up, and the line was shuttered by the end of 2019. Appropriately, the Times reported that the trolley broke down on its final trip.

“After years of construction and mechanical delays,” Danny Wicentowski wrote for the Times following that ill-fated last trip, “only the rails of this Ozymandian effort remain for travelers to marvel at.”

But this white elephant isn’t done bathing in an oasis of taxpayer largess. Last month, federal transit officials demanded that St. Louis revive the trolley line or return the $37 million that they provided to help build it. If local pols fail to accept either option, they’ll put future federal transit funds in jeopardy.

Whichever course local politicians take, it leaves taxpayers as the ultimate losers. Federal bureaucrats will pay no penalty for showering other people’s money on a dubious transportation line, while St. Louis officials can now plausibly argue that the fiscally responsible alternative is to tap additional public funds to resuscitate the trolley.

“The mess that is the St. Louis streetcar suggests that much less transit funding overall should come from the federal government,” Christian Britschgi of Reason wrote this week. “If local and state policymakers had to rely more heavily on their own voters and taxpayers to fund projects, they’d have to be more thoughtful about which ones they chose.”

A three-car trolley isn’t light-rail, but the result was a familiar failure that has become the hallmark of modern transit projects. And that’s something Clark County transportation officials must keep in mind.