I APPLAUD the Globe’s coverage of transportation alternatives, and for its Dec. 18 editorial calling for a long-term commitment to seasonal rail service between Boston and Cape Cod, which is to be revived later this year (“Transit authority must make long-term commitment to Hyannis train”). The planned summer rail service has the potential to provide significant economic and environmental benefits, and to reduce traffic congestion along its route.
I’m disappointed, however, by the Globe’s continued use of the word “subsidized” in connection with funding for rail or bus service, as if other forms of transportation didn’t rely on government support, too. When was the last time a road or highway in our region was self-supporting?
Comments
Roads and highways are huge beneficiaries of public subsidy, not only in their construction and maintenance, but in the public subsidies to the gas engines that use them. Who is paying for the oil wars? Who is paying for the environmental damage? Who is paying for the sprawling development they enable, gobbling up natural and agricultural land and decimating sustainable urban centers? If we honestly internalized the true costs of the roadway circulatory system, we would conclude that public transit should be free and urgently encouraged by all possible sticks and carrots.