Erica Barnett’s been checking out the new rail line in Denver:

Here, in a city pretty much no one would regard as cutting-edge (the girls are still wearing tube-tops; the guys still favor large wire-framed Dick Cheney glasses), light rail has managed to take thousands of cars off the road. Surveys found that nearly 50% of light rail riders switched to transit from cars, and that more than 25% of commuters to the city center get there by transit. Light rail ridership here has been 60 percent higher than projections.

Thanks to Andrew from Sound Transit for sending the link.

Unfortunately, there won’t be any coming-out parties east of the mountains in the near future.

Light rail plans ran off-track Thursday evening when the Spokane Transit Authority disbanded the group charged with planning rapid transit between Liberty Lake and downtown Spokane.”

STA Board members unanimously voted to set aside the project, although they commended the Light Rail Steering Committee for its work.

Apparently, the board set aside $5 million for right-of-way purchase. I’m choosing to remain optimistic.