Allegheny County’s Chief Executive wants to see free rides on the North Shore Connector continue as being crucial to North Shore development and boon for the City. According to news accounts he discussed transit issues with the Mayor of Pittsburgh while they were traveling to Denver to talk to leaders there. Presumably, they did not discuss Denver’s privatization of half of its bus service with Denver’s officials. Just a minor oversight perhaps.
But on the free rides issue. We must bear in mind that in the justification for the construction of the Connector there were ridership forecasts and nothing was mentioned about those rides being free. Certainly, having to look for ways to at least partially subsidize the free rides is inconsistent with the justification for building the Connector. Bear in mind that all rides on the light rail system, even those paying a fare, are already heavily subsidized to the tune of over $5 per trip.
Now it will be argued that the system is completed and we have to make sure that it is optimally utilized. But one could say that about any leg of the T system (Port Authority’s name for light rail). Why should some parts of the system require fare payments to ride and others not? Fares are prices that ration use to those for whom the ride is worth the fare and as a way of covering costs. When there is no fare for riding, there will be greater use of the T as increased parking on the North Shore would seem to indicate. Parking operators have contributed to the Port Authority as a way to defray some of the expense of running cars to the North Shore. But the subsidies do not approach the level of subsidy being provided by the state of Pennsylvania. Indeed they are far short of the amount fare payers on other segments pay.
It would be useful for those talking about the need for free rides to consider the higher tolls being paid by Turnpike users that are dedicated to mass transit with the T a major beneficiary. Those folks also might want to bear in mind the additional fees and taxes just tacked on last November by the Legislature that will be coming to subsidize the T and bus system in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.
The original argument for the T going to the North Shore was heavily dependent on the need to provide service to the new stadiums although much of the benefits used in the calculations hinged on a spur line from Steel Plaza to the Convention Center. That spur was dropped from the project but the loss of benefits in building the Connector somehow never gets mentioned.
So now we have the already heavily subsidized, non-real estate taxable stadiums getting even further subsidy in having game attendees riding the Connector at no cost. It is wonderful how well government officials take such good care of their pro sports teams.
Further subsidy of riders on the North Shore Connector beyond what the riders on the most of the rest of the system pay is preposterous. If without free rides the Connector light rail cars would be largely empty, it just goes to show that the opponents of the boondoggle were more than justified—and proved right—in fighting the expenditure of $520 million, a fourth of which came from local and state sources that could have been used for real traffic problems.
