Media

“Much has been written about America’s love affair with the automobile... What has been overlooked is America’s love affair with electric trains — the ‘Lionel complex.’ If the object of this passion were just model trains that speed around Christmas trees we could understand the pleasure... Unfortunately the passion extends to full-size trains that have (been) foisted upon city after city in an alleged effort to solve commuter problems. The result has been failure, and the cost has been billions of dollars. Los Angeles is the prime example of choosing the wrong technology...the choice of rail to serve Los Angeles dispersed employment and residency pattern was clearly a mistake and I know of no competent transport planner who thinks the choice made any sense. To make matters worse LA’s error has been repeated in city after city... More than $200b has been spent in a largely unsuccessful effort to increase transit ridership...The media must accept a substantial portion of the blame for the costly love affair with trains. In city after city (they) have been uncritical boosters of ill-conceived rail proposals and have grossly misled their readers and viewers about the benefits and costs of these investments.” Extracts from John F. Kain, NIEMANN REPORTS, Winter 1997 p39.