Triangle Transit Authority (TTA) officials have finally admitted they cannot meet the federal standards to get money from Washington to build their lite-rail project. But are they going to pitch their tent and save the taxpayers the millions they are pouring into the TTA each year?

Well, no.

According to the News and Observer (News and Observer, 5/30/06), Congress is considering promoting new public-private partnerships to build public transit. No one knew it – until now – but suddenly it turns out that is the TTA’s “special strength.”

“This is Congress acknowledging what we’ve felt all along was a hallmark of this project,” a TTA trustee boasted last week.

Huh?

Ronald Reagan once said the closest thing to eternal life on earth is a government program. The TTA proves it.

Now, it is trying to work a deal with a private investor to develop the sites around twelve rail stops that haven’t been built and that the TTA admits it can’t get the money to pay for. But the TTA wants to build the developments anyway. Before the first rail is laid. What’s more it says it can return a whopping $65 million on its investment in just a few years.

So, the Triangle Transit Authority is going to turn itself into a developer. Subsidized by taxpayers.

The Triangle Transit Authority is like the Frankenstein’s monster in the old black and white movies in the 1930’s. At the end of the movie the monster dies but then the sequel comes out and you find out he wasn’t dead at all.

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