San Francisco’s new Central Subway, which will extend its T-Third Muni Line through downtown, is also remarkable in that it’s been being actively discussed since the 1990s and is the first subway completed in central San Francisco since the BART Market Street tunnel in 1973.
New transit is generally happy news. But in this case, it's a ray of sunshine after almost 50 years. When you built a rail system, and then don't expand it for fifty years, something clearly went radically wrong. Because when a rail system is working, you keep building more of it. More destinations means more trips, because the system becomes more useful to all your existing riders. And more origins as well, as previously inaccessible to the network can now ride it.
So what breaks down this virtuous cycle? When you do the dumb thing, and sabotage your existing network (cutting frequency and operating hours) to pay for the capital costs of your expansion. If the expansion isn't going to pay for itself*, don't built it.
*Yeah, yeah. No (American) transit system finances itself. Neither does the highway network**. But both networks provide public benefits, and so we provide public subsidy.
**The Federal Gas tax hasn't paid the cost of highway expenditures in years. Says the Heritage Foundation. It's in debt to the general fund. And if you claim that's because of diversions to the Mass Transit Account, I invite you to prove it.
New transit is generally happy news. But in this case, it's a ray of sunshine after almost 50 years. When you built a rail system, and then don't expand it for fifty years, something clearly went radically wrong. Because when a rail system is working, you keep building more of it. More destinations means more trips, because the system becomes more useful to all your existing riders. And more origins as well, as previously inaccessible to the network can now ride it.
So what breaks down this virtuous cycle? When you do the dumb thing, and sabotage your existing network (cutting frequency and operating hours) to pay for the capital costs of your expansion. If the expansion isn't going to pay for itself*, don't built it.
*Yeah, yeah. No (American) transit system finances itself. Neither does the highway network**. But both networks provide public benefits, and so we provide public subsidy.
**The Federal Gas tax hasn't paid the cost of highway expenditures in years. Says the Heritage Foundation. It's in debt to the general fund. And if you claim that's because of diversions to the Mass Transit Account, I invite you to prove it.
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