Underground construction has been banned, but not surface construction. Stossel's otherwise pointless comparison is obviously intended to perform no other purpose than to belittle what is actually an impressive ridership figure for a single transit line. Transit is an essential service, that's there when you need it. It's not as if everyone lives in the suburbs and commutes to the city center, Stossel says. Rarely do people's travel needs happen to coincide with the mostly straight lines that rail systems cover.
Transit is designed to serve the heaviest travel corridors.
Not everyone travels to city centers and other congested areas. The solution, Stossel says, is more buses, which carry many more people for less money. Stossel fails to support such a claim. When benefits, such as the averted need for freeway capacity, street capacity, parking facilities, and the associated operating and administrative costs, are considered, rail wins, hands-down. Rail systems, nationwide, have been the big winners in attracting ridership, particularly from automobiles.