Quote:
Originally Posted by galleyfox
The fact of the matter is that Chicago is only getting federal money because the former President used to live and work in the vicinity and the request got moved up in the queue. We’re fooling ourselves if we think the Federal Government would sponsor any of our “worthier” extensions.
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Lots of projects get funded as a favor, that's how our system of government works. That's how we got the Orange Line built during the very anti-transit Reagan administration. But you're way too pessimistic if you think a well-planned Chicago transit expansion could not compete effectively against other US cities for Federal grants.
For god's sake,
Los Angeles is in the middle of the country's biggest transit expansion, fueled by Federal cash. Very few Angelenos ride their existing rail system, but they're planning tens or hundred of miles worth of additional rail lines, and securing Federal grants for those projects.
The problem is, and always has been, a lack of agreement among our local politicians on where to expand transit and how to pay for the local share. We go hat in hand to the Feds just to pay for basic planning and engineering studies, because the sub-$10M cost of these studies is apparently too expensive for us. Los Angeles is succeeding because they got all their leaders on the same page about expansion, and voted to tax themselves to raise billions to pay for planning/engineering work and the local match for projects.
Also, of course, we have gotten many billions in transit grants from the Feds over the last few decades - it's just gone towards rebuilding all of our crumbling L lines, a project that is still far from complete.