I’m embarrassed, as an American, to admit to our Canadian brothers and sisters that we, as a country, are not exactly perfect.

Atlanta Plans To Blow $230 Million on 2-Mile Extension of Useless Streetcar
Reason | 6/26/23 | Eric Boehm

What is already arguably America’s worst public transit project is about to get a whole lot more expensive.

Big surprise.

That’s like saying the death toll in Chicago from gang shootings is about to get a lot worse.

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) is moving ahead with plans to build a 2-mile extension to the city’s 2.7-mile streetcar line, with an estimated price tag of $230 million.

“For starters.” — Tony Soprano.

The Center Square reports that the first batch of that new spending—an $11.5 million contract awarded to a firm that will design the extension—was doled out last week.

To design. I could have drawn a design on a map for a couple of bucks.

The project is being funded by a half-cent increase in the Atlanta sales tax, and the extension is scheduled to open in 2028.

And this tax will go away when the project is . . . ? ah, forget it. I don’t want to sound stupid.

Even if the extension doesn’t go over budget, . . .

{cough} California high-speed rail {cough}

$230 million for two miles of new streetcar track works out to a slobber-knocking total of $21,700 per foot.

“slobber-knocking”?

And that only covers the construction costs. If the current Atlanta Streetcar is any indication, most of the operating costs for the extension will be covered by people who never ride it.

Including people who pay federal taxes in Florida, Massachusetts, Denver, . . .

The existing 2.7-mile loop through downtown Atlanta gets about 158,000 riders per year. Even if all of them pay the $1 per ride fare—and there is ample evidence that many do not—

New York decided that it’s racist to prosecute stile-jumpers. Because only one race does it, I guess, is their logic.

that wouldn’t come close to covering the system’s $5 million annual operating cost.

. . . minus ten percent for the Big Guy.

Sorry, Canadians. Moving to the U.S. is no solution to your socialist problems. It would be like moving to Nazi Germany to escape Soviet Russia.