When USC professor and transportation expert James Moore heard the findings several days ago that the $9 billion Subway to the Sea won’t relieve congestion on the Westside, as vowed by Antonio Villaraigosa, Moore was among a number of transportation insiders who wasn’t stunned
Moore says the truth about how Metro plans to use up to $9 billion in sales taxes being paid by 8 million consumers in Los Angeles County is: “We’re not building [a subway] to ease congestion. We’re doing it for political reasons.”
The draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is making waves in political, fiscal and transportation circles here and in Washington, D.C. Opponents called the subway a foolish waste, saying Villaraigosa, Zane and others were peddling a giant public works project to please unions and special interests, and that the $9 billion — reaped from a half-cent county sales-tax hike approved by voters in 2008 — should go to county road-capacity projects put off for decades, extensive bus lines to bring the region into the 21st century, and scores of less glitzy projects.
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