Senator Joni Ernst’s (R-IA) recently released report identifies billions in government program cost overruns. Of thirteen projects listed, eight were transportation projects; all eight were in blue jurisdictions. This small sample illustrates the big-spending Left and their big-subsidy penchant for public transportation.
In her “Off the Rails” report, Senate DOGE Caucus Chair Joni Ernst called out thirteen projects notable for egregious cost overruns. Almost two-thirds of the listed programs were transportation programs. Not only was transportation more prevalent than any other category (NASA, Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security, Defense, and the Federal Reserve), no other category had more than a single program listed.
The biggest budget buster among the egregious eight is the much-maligned California High-Speed Rail project. Originally this porcine project was estimated to cost $33 billion, it now tips the scales at a whopping $128 billion. Also in California is the Bay Area Rail Transit Extension, which has gone from $4.7 billion to $12.8 billion. The state’s third transportation project on the list is the Caltrain Extension with a $3.8 billion cost overrun ($4.5 billion to $8.3 billion). The fourth and final of California’s projects is the Transbay Corridor Core Capacity, which has grown from its $2.7 billion initial estimate to $4 billion.
There are another four transportation projects outside California. Hawaii has one: Honolulu Rail Transit, almost double its initial $5.1 billion projection to $9.9 billion. Maryland is home to the Maryland Purple Line Transit program: up from $2.4 billion to $5.5 billion. Minnesota has the Minneapolis Light Rail Extension that’s doubled in cost: from $1.3 billion to $2.7 billion. The last of the transportation travesties is New York’s Queens Railroad Project, which has ballooned from $400 million to $1.4 billion.
All told the eight transportation programs have a combined cost overrun of $118.2 billion. These eight follies underscore two of liberals’ favorite fallacies: that people want public transportation and that its efficient. They don’t and it isn’t.
Nor is the reason simply Covid and its aftermath. Between 2012 and 2018, bus ridership fell 15%, while rail riders dropped 3%. These declines came before Covid. The pandemic piled on top of the trend but did so in a big way. In April 2020, public transit ridership was down 80%; by 2023, it had recovered to only 73% of pre-Covid levels. Last year, public transit usage nationally was still 23% below 2019’s.
When looking at just the pre-pandemic declines, “ride-hailing” was identified as “the biggest contributor to transit ridership decline.” Also cited were “higher fares, incomes, teleworking, and car ownership, and lower gas prices.” Ride-hailing remains the primary reason post-pandemic too. Looking at the reasons for both pre- and post-pandemic declines, the overarching conclusion is that Americans chose private sector options.
That Americans made this choice in transportation should not come as a surprise. They also increasingly choose it over the government option in areas as dissimilar as parcel delivery and even currency (yes, crypto).
What is surprising is that government officials keep insisting there is demand for public transportation that government must fill.
America has almost a $30 trillion annual economy. When an economy so large and with new markets continually emerging doesn’t see private money flowing into an area, that should be a strong indicator that there’s no money—because demand is insufficient to offset the cost of bringing supply to it—to be made there.
Yet government officials assume just the opposite: the clarion call of commonsense is a siren song to liberal ears. So, they pour government money into public transportation.
Of course, building public transportation is just the beginning of its subsidization. Excessively funded from the outset, there’s no way it can return sufficient revenues to offset its cost. So, its operation must be subsidized too. Public transportation’s losses continue to mount.
To make matters worse, these public transportation systems operate in jurisdictions that also pursue woke policies like defunding the police. The lack of police presence encourages criminal activity—from turnstile jumpers to homelessness to assaults. Fearing for their safety, users turn away.
From construction to operation, subsidy is piled on subsidy. Taxpayer losses mount. Yet as ridership decline shows, even with subsidies, the public doesn’t want it and escapes when they can. In contrast, public servants never stop wanting it and run to build it whenever they can. The result is that the road less traveled is the road more subsidized.
