Rep. Kooiman's bill would give Michigan transit authorities the freedom to waste hundreds of millions of tax dollars on unproductive trolley lines. Such transit lines have victimized transit riders in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Denver, Portland, Buffalo, St. Louis, Minneapolis, New Jersey and elsewhere. The federal "New Starts" program gives generous handouts to states for building rail lines, but leaves local taxpayers responsible for the continuing burden of operating these railroads. Inevitably, regional transit agencies with trolley lines end up increasing fares and reducing service to bus riders to keep the streetcars running on one or two routes serving a tiny minority of regional destinations.
Does any Michigan region have half a billion or a billion dollars to waste on a trolley line that will offer slower service than express buses operating on the same route? I don't think so. Yet if this bill becomes law, trolley-car enthusiasts and anti-auto agitators will promote such a project in Detroit even though the benefits are all imaginary, and can be demontrated to be so with even the simplest analysis.