MARTA News (Atlanta, Marietta, Alpharetta: 2013, centers, train)

[cabasse]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

In some sense I get what you mean but after actually living in and observing Texas, I dont know that the oil / natural gas industry really makes that huge of an impact on our infrastructure. Note that despite the cash cow we have, we also dont have state income tax and gas prices here are about $0.30 to $0.50 cheaper here than they are in Georgia so we get less tax from that too. 90% of Texas newer highways are toll roads. Infact the only major newer highways that I can think of that are not tolled are I-14 and I-69, both of which receive federal funding for obvious reasons.

All of the newer cross-suburban highways in DFW are toll roads, all of the bypasses in Houston besides I-810 (which is considerably smaller than I-285) are also toll roads and I pretty much do not believe Texas is going to build anymore free highways.

The toll roads here are also contracted out between 75 and 100 years, although they do bring in enough profit to literally rebuild the whole highway within half of their life expectancy, it's to say most of our infrastructure is contracted out and independently financed.

If you want another example, look at California. They are also another major oil producer yet they have the highest fuel prices in the country, some of the worst infrastructure (in terms of maintenance and shape). They also are the leading producer of agricultural in the U.S.A. but is still by far the most expensive state to live in with crippling infrastructure.

I believe where Texas levies its oil / natural gas incentives is levying tax incentives for business growth which explains how and why they have such an economic boom.

i lived in dallas for a couple of years just recently. there's fracking wells everywhere. it's not hard to connect the two: https://www.ttnews.com/articles/txdo...siness-economy

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by cabasse

i lived in dallas for a couple of years just recently. there's fracking wells everywhere. it's not hard to connect the two: https://www.ttnews.com/articles/txdo...siness-economy

That's pretty cool but you have to account for the state of Texas being about 3 times larger than Georgia and having 2 large metros and several medium sized metros as well...when you account for the entire state and every populated city between El-Paso, DFW, Waco, Temple, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Corpus Christi, Beaumont, ect... $1.1 Billion is hardly anything. Heck, it really wouldn't even cover the construction of just one major interchange let alone the rest of the state. GDOT for example operates on a budget of aprox $2 billion annually in a much smaller state. Illinois operates at aprox $4 billion annually and is still littered with tolls all over the greater Chicago area. The additional funding is boosted funding but when divided across the entire state is fairly negligible over all. Most of the newer roads in Texas are funded by tolls.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by bu2

Texas gets minimal funding for transit and Dallas built 73 miles of light rail. Houston built a $300 million LRT line without a single dollar from the federal government.

Problem is Atlanta/MARTA is run by ignorant corrupt progressives

wow

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by bu2

Canada and Australia are not that similar to us. What city in the US would you compare to Vancouver other than NYC?

Uhhh...have you ever been to Canada? I've spent months in Canada, and barely every felt like I was in another country. It's essentially exactly the same place, but with better healthcare and nicer people.

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I love all the excuses for why our rail network is so inexcusably poor.

The bottom line is there isn't enough political will to overcome these problems, and the public isn't holding politicians accountable.

It probably comes down to actually having to work to get it done. If they just keep passing the bill, it looks like they're talking and moving and prepping. But then, that's all they do. To actually get the project moving required work. And maybe they don't want that.

[ATLTJL]

I've spent months in Canada, and barely every felt like I was in another country. It's essentially exactly the same place, but with better healthcare and nicer people.

It's pretty much the same deal in most of Australia.

If someone magically teleported you to the middle of one of the cities there, took away the accents and put the cars on the right side of the road and then asked you where you were, there's no way you'd think you were anywhere other than the U.S. Other than the people being a million times friendlier.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

It probably comes down to actually having to work to get it done. If they just keep passing the bill, it looks like they're talking and moving and prepping. But then, that's all they do. To actually get the project moving required work. And maybe they don't want that.

Those boys up in Canada and down in Australia don't mess around. When they have a project they jump on it with both feet.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

Uhhh...have you ever been to Canada? I've spent months in Canada, and barely every felt like I was in another country. It's essentially exactly the same place, but with better healthcare and nicer people.


...

Ontario is definitely like this. I felt the same way. And I assume BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba are similar.

Québec—not so much.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

It's pretty much the same deal in most of Australia.

If someone magically teleported you to the middle of one of the cities there, took away the accents and put the cars on the right side of the road and then asked you where you were, there's no way you'd think you were anywhere other than the U.S. Other than the people being a million times friendlier.

Maybe people in America would be friendlier if we...you know...make America GREAT again!

[J2rescue]

Originally Posted by bu2

Texas gets minimal funding for transit and Dallas built 73 miles of light rail. Houston built a $300 million LRT line without a single dollar from the federal government.

Problem is Atlanta/MARTA is run by ignorant corrupt progressives who rarely propose something logical like Campbellton Road. Mainly they just study the same things over and over and keep paying connected consultants.

Dallas and Houston were also metros of more than 5 million and ZERO fixed guideway transit. In other words, what you are describing is the initial investment in rail transit (since the death of streetcars) by two very large cities. It was about time.

That is not a comparable situation to Atlanta where Marta is expanding while also maintaining a system that already transports more people than Dallas and Houston's rail combined.

[J2rescue]

Originally Posted by Gulch

Would be more accurate to use metro population.

The metro isn't paying to expand Marta. At this time, only the city proper is doing so. The point its a lot easier to accomplish great things working together. And we all know that working together has been a big problem in Atlanta for a long time.