News broke earlier this week that mere Minnesotans without Super Bowl tickets will be barred from the Met Council’s train lines on Super Bowl Sunday:
Metro Transit is the best way to reach downtown Minneapolis with expanded schedules on key routes for local commuters and additional schedules for Super Bowl related events. That includes unlimited fan passes ($40 for unlimited rides on all buses, light rail and North Star from January 26-Feb 4), Gameday Passes ($30 – only those holding a Gameday Pass and an official Super Bowl ticket will be able to ride the light rail on game day) and All-Day Passes ($1-5, varies by time of day and day of the week.)
Right after this, the unions representing Metro Transit staffers voted to strike…curing Super Bowl week.
So – after building a train line ostensibly to get working people to and from work (and not to serve as a monument to the perspicacity of the sitting Met Council, nosirreebob), they’re basically turning the whole shebang over to the high rollers who can get tickets (but presumably can’t afford the much preferable car rentals, cabs, Ubers, or everything else that’s preferable to riding the train if you have any options, which is pretty much everything above “camel caravan”) – just in time for another part of the racket to seize control of the toy for its’ own shakedown.
Clearly they all learned well from Zygi Wilf.
On the one hand, it’ll eliminate no-pay riders for a day.
On the other hand the NFL will be handing out free tickets like M&M’s, so there’ll probably be nothing but no-pay riders.
Maybe it’s sadistic on my part, but I would laugh so hard if half the stadium was empty for the Super Bowl because of a Death Train strike. It would be such poetic justice for the National Extortion League and the Met Council.
All of these passenger rail systems are unmanageable because they have to be managed ***politically***. No exceptions. They do zero net good.
$72 million a year subsidy to force demand for something that is unmanageable.
This year, ridership is down 2% and expenses are up 2%.
The Fed guesses the interest rate to help us.
Politicians generate non-public goods and government actuarial systems to help us. Politicians central plan (guess) IRS ***government forced*** rates of taxation to maximize the affordability of everything and our quality of life.
It’s like GOSPLAN only…the same.
Submit. Be grateful.
I was taught to always consider second and third order effects. In this case, if the only people that have the rail pass and game ticket are allowed on the train, it’s going to impact service in other areas. And not transit service.
I’m pretty sure there are plenty of folks that work at the stadium, clean the hotels, pour drinks at bars (and on and on) that use light rail to get to their job. What happens when they can’t take it? Do they have to take an Uber/Lyft ride at surge pricing? Leave 2 hours earlier so they can get there by bus? Skip work and have that impact service?
The choo-choo is a public accommodation. If I still lived in that forsaken area, I’d spend all day riding it, and recording interactions with anyone who tried to stop me….evidence for my lawsuit.
I think this activity is well suited for a SITD get-together. Ride between the U and Hennepin until you collect enough evidence for a class action.
Remember when Mumbles Dayton told us: “We have to build this stadium for the Vikings because it will be such a great arena for political discourse!”?
So a Met Council exec is very upset that the MC – the “owner” of the LRT – was given no input into how the trains are going to be used.
So tell me, Met Council, how does that feel?
AG Swiftee: I’m loving that idea. As I could care less about the game, I may just do that. Gotta get myself a body camera first though.