Vincent J. Curtis
7 Aug 23
RE: LRT needs private operators. The Hamilton Spectator 5 Aug 23
Should Hamilton’s LRT be publicly or privately owned? A quick look at the finances will cause private equity to steer clear of this baying white elephant.
If the LRT costs $3.4 billion to build, just to pay back the mortgage over forty years at a 2 percent interest rate, it will require $10.3 million per month in revenue. At $5 per ride fare, that means that there needs to be 68,700 fares paid per day, every day for forty years, just to cover the mortgage.
Since the LRT will be all-electric powered, the considerable cost of electricity – green or otherwise – will add enormously to monthly costs, to say nothing of labor, maintenance, and other overhead. The LRT is a financial disaster waiting to happen; and from a transportation point of view quite ridiculous when you consider the cost of it compared to natural gas powered buses with the same carrying capacity.
Only stupid government could run such a
business, because only government can never go out of business. What pig-headed ideology could possibly
insist upon pursuing this calamity in waiting?
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