Alameda Corridor Problems

From the LA Times:

In 2007, the corridor collected $96 million in revenue to cover debt payments. In 2009, its revenue fell to $76 million. Through June, revenue had climbed 10% above the same period a year earlier but was still running 15% below what the corridor earned in 2007. And the surplus amassed during better years is running out.

The corridor authority's payments on debt principal and interest will jump to $117.1 million in 2012 from $102.5 million the year before. The tab keeps rising so that in 2033 the corridor will need to handle twice the cargo it received in 2009 to make $198.6 million in debt payments — an unlikely prospect.

Hopefully, the 50 billion transportation bill would help pay down the debt on this debacle.

The infrastructure plan will help the economy in long run by making it easier to transport goods, Obama said, while creating construction jobs in the near term. It calls for ambitious six-year goals, building or repairing 150,000 miles of roads, 4,000 miles of rail lines, and 150 miles of airplane runways.