PEOPLE CALL LIGHT RAIL PROJECTS BOONDOGGLES.

In addition to the multiple-unit commuter trains serving Denver Union Station, there are connecting light rail lines using more conventional upgrades of the Milwaukee three-truck train that literally bends the corner around.  The O Scale convention that recently took place used a Hyatt conference hotel in Aurora that is about a half-mile walk, admittedly through stroad hell, from a light rail   Senior citizen car-fare, $1.50.  What's not to like?

That's what appears to be a standard configuration of two three-truck cars heading south.  A car heading north will come along to deliver passengers to the Peoria Street station, to connect with the commuter rail line for downtown or for the airport.  There were a few Rockies fans getting on those trains.  Judge for yourself whether they went in with high hopes and went out with long faces.

Down on Colfax Boulevard, we see our more politically palatable uses of tax money on display.

Even when the traffic engineers make the effort to time the traffic lights properly, there's always somebody screws it up.  The idea is, first the turn arrow controlling a left from Colfax onto the beltway clears, then the green allowing traffic on Colfax to go under the beltway clears, and if all goes well, traffic leaving the beltway gets a clear path to turn left onto Colfax.  But (with the baseball traffic?) the accumulator lanes under the beltway are full, and somebody gets impatient and pulls forward hoping to nudge everybody up in the accumulator lane, and when that doesn't happen, tempers flare.

It's clear, isn't it, dear reader, that even with the turn signal clutter and the parking charges downtown or at the airport, that light rail connecting to the commuter trains is just too inconvenient and wasteful to be of any use?