Leggett: Bus Rapid Transit Too Expensive for County
Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett says the county cannot afford to build a 10-route bus rapid transit system.
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The bus rapid transit system proposed by Montgomery County planners for major county routes received a blow on Monday: Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett said the system would be too expensive to build, The (Washington) Examiner reported.
"Instead, Leggett suggested a significantly smaller system with fewer bells and whistles than the proposed high-end bus rapid transit, or BRT, system," The Examiner added.
The planners' proposal was for a 10-route system, which would have cost less than the 23-route bus rapid transit system proposed by the all-volunteer Transit Task Force last spring. The task force put its system's price tag at $1.8 billion, while Montgomery County Master Planner Larry Cole figured the 23-route system would have cost closer to $8 or $10 billion, The Examiner reported.
But the county can afford neither a 23-route nor a 10-route system, Leggett said, The Examiner wrote. To build even a smaller-scale system, Leggett "would pay for those routes by delaying other county construction projects and reallocating the money, though he wouldn't say which projects he would delay," The Examiner added.
Also, Leggett said that taxes might need to be raised to pay for the bus system, The Examiner reported.
Read more about this story on The Examiner's website.
What do you think? Can the county afford a bus rapid transit system? Would it be useful? Tell us in the comments.
Piotr Gajewski
6:29 pm on Tuesday, November 13, 2012
I am spending two weeks in Poland, a relatively poor country, where trams and buses (often state of the art) take you everywhere you need to go. And meanwhile I read that where I live, in one of the richest counties in the world, we cannot afford a modern bus system.
This just doesn't feel right.
Barry Graham
11:58 pm on Sunday, December 2, 2012
The problem is that the buses would create more traffic for those, like me, that wouldn't find the system useful because it doesn't go where it's needed. Instead spend the money on creating metro lines that cross the city, and on building overpasses on the congested roads like Route 29 that already have overpasses planned but no money for them.
Paul Sheppard
6:31 pm on Tuesday, November 13, 2012
ok....but it's all right for our police "to have an injury" after 12 years and retire with full benefits
jag
10:41 pm on Tuesday, November 13, 2012
??