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Letter: Light rail is a necessity

The Columbian
Published: May 7, 2013, 5:00pm

It’s not difficult to understand why so many people are unhappy about the way things are working out with the Columbia River Crossing.

The costs that state governments have run up in planning, engineering and who knows what, with a minimum of real progress, are astounding.

And no one can be really happy with the idea of knocking down two perfectly functional bridges (the Interstate 5 pair) to simply make sure that enough toll money is generated from the new bridge.

On the other hand, the long-range future of Vancouver depends on the CRC.

Not only that, the governor of Oregon is right: Light rail is part and parcel of a sound area-wide transportation system. Despite the ups and downs of the price of gasoline, and despite the brouhaha about the wonders of natural gas that is being squeezed out of low-porosity and low-permeability shales, the fact is that the world in general, and the United States in particular, is staring at an imminent shortage of fossil fuels.

Whether we like it or not, cars as we know them are going to get much more expensive to buy and operate, and a bedroom community like ours desperately needs a true mass rapid transit system. Buses won’t do the job; light rail will.

Bruce L. Melkonian

VANCOUVER

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