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Podcast: Cascade CounterPoint
Episode: QP $2 Trillion for Transit and No One Aboard
Description: Since 1965, Congress has been subsidizing transit and taxpayers have spent well over $2 trillion dollars on transit. That’s in the same territory as the U.S. deficit.In these 60 years, transit operating costs have increased 500 percent while fare revenues have ticked up a modest 10 percent. Total ridership – in actual numbers – has decreased by 10 percent, and riders per capita for urban residents has fallen by more than half. Instead of improving efficient transportation, transit agencies have bloated their bureaucracies and nearly tripled their workers. Today, they spend 55 percent more on "general administration."Most transit makes...