What do you get when you cross so-called "deficit hawk" Senator Richard Shelby and a $2.6 million North Alabama pork project? You get an empty tourist tram that traveled for 4 weekends - on a specially-built private road - between the US Space & Rocket Center and the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. The tram's "trial run" consisted of 3 trips/day for a total of 8 days – that's $325,000 per trip. We can't break the cost out by passenger because nobody from Left In Alabama ever saw anyone ride.
This project required construction of a private, landscaped, mile-long road between the space museum and the gardens. Shelby earmarked federal transportation tax dollars to build a road the public isn't allowed to drive on, ostensibly to avoid "tourist congestion" on a public road that isn't congested on weekend days (when most tourists visit either attraction.)
Video of what we found is on the flip.
Crossposted at LeftInAlabama.com
According to press releases from Shelby and the USSRC, this fantastic project was supposed to:
- Encourage tourism
- Get people out of their cars and on to public transportation
- Reduce traffic congestion on public roads
All that would be great. Unfortunately, the tram does none of these things. LIA was on the scene at the Botanical Gardens <span> </span>and USSRC between August 21st (the second weekend of the tram's operation) and September 3 (the final weekend) and never saw anyone but the driver enter or exit the tram. In fact, we didn't always see the specially-purchased electric tram either: more often, it was a full-size Space & Rocket Center diesel tourist bus. When anything arrived at all, that is. We waited in vain for the appearance of either vehicle on more than one occasion.
"Congestion on Bob Wallace Avenue?" When?
When it suits him, Shelby is quite the deficit hawk. He's also a federal pork king and winner of the Citizen's Against Government Waste's "Porker of the Month" award on more than one occasion. In essence, Shelby appears to oppose all government spending - that doesn't help him get re-elected.
In this case, he seems to be going for the "stuck in traffic on Bob Wallace vote." Which means to us that no matter how small your constituency or how minor the issue, Shelby is working to earn your vote! You see, there's an alternate exit from the USSRC that saves motorists the trouble of going through a single traffic light or encountering any sort of traffic congestion other than a school zone – which isn't in use on weekends when most tourists visit.
Still, Shelby seemed particularly concerned about traffic congestion when the project was launched:
"Thousands of people visit both the U.S. Space & Rocket Center and the Botanical Garden each year, making them important components of Huntsville's tourism industry and economy," Shelby said in a statement. "The tramway will alleviate traffic congestion in the area that results from visitors traveling from one destination to the other."
LIA bloggers were intrigued by this statement. Were people bypassing either attraction because traffic was so heavy that even a right turn was a dangerous prospect? No. On Friday, August 27, we kept track of arriving visitors to the Botanical Gardens as we waiting for the tram to arrive/depart. 8 cars entered the Botanical Gardens grounds between 1:45 and 2:10pm and 11 vehicles arrived between 3:40 and 4pm.
In addition, is there a huge demand for a tram service between the two places? This video shows what we found....
Tram Announced With Great Fanfare – Then The Plan Changed
On January 27, 2010, the US Space & Rocket Center made this announcement:
On Tuesday, the Huntsville Planning Commission approved the concept of a mile-long "tramway" between the popular attractions.
Federal grants will pay for the bulk of the $2.6 million project, which includes two new buses and a bridge over McDonald Creek.
Space Center CEO Larry Capps said he wants the buses to be running before an estimated 150,000 people descend on the museum for a traveling "Star Wars' exhibit. The show, called "Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination," opens June 25 and features props, costumes, models and interactive displays from the groundbreaking George Lucas films.
More than 1.75 million people worldwide have paid to see the exhibit since its 2005 debut.
Capps said the Space Center intends to sell "combo tickets" good for admission to both the museum and Botanical Garden. Visitors could hop on a shuttle bus in front of the Davidson Center and ride to the garden without having to navigate Bob Wallace Avenue.
"We think this rising tide will lift all boats," Capps said Tuesday, referring to an anticipated boost in tourism at both places.
The buses would follow the existing Space Center entrance road, Tranquility Base, as well as a smaller road that leads to Aviation Challenge. Capps said the museum will hire a contractor to build the rest of the landscaped tramway, which would cross McDonald Creek and cut behind Morris Elementary before tying in with the garden.
There was no word from anyone about the tram – which should have started running in June – until July 26 when the Space & Rocket Center made this announcement:
A $2.6 million tramway system connecting the Huntsville Botanical Garden and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center is now open to visitors seeking easy access to both attractions.
The tramway, which consists of an open-air, electric-powered shuttle bus and trailer that travels along a newly created roadway between the two attractions, made its official debut July 16. U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, had been appropriating Federal Transit Administration money toward the project for several years.
The project included paving part of Tranquility Base and Crater and Phantom roads, constructing a new bridge over McDonald Creek, and landscaping. The money also paid for new sidewalks, streetlights and security gates, said Holly Beach, vice president of marketing at the Space Center.
"We have worked with the Botanical Garden for a long time from a promotion standpoint to capitalize on this area as a mini-destination," Beach said. "We are excited to continue to work with them, market events together and share tourism business."
Similar to a small bus, the open-air tram and its trailer were both acquired in 2008 through a federal transportation grant for the Davidson Center for Space Exploration, Beach said. The tram holds 14 passengers while the adjoining trailer seats 18. Beach said the plan is to purchase two additional trams in the future.
So what happened with this fabulous new transportation option that was "open to visitors on July 16? On August 6 (weeks after the tram was "open to visitors"), the Space & Rocket Center said this:
The tramway, which consists of an open-air, electric-powered shuttle bus and trailer that travels along a newly created roadway between the two sites, will begins its route Aug. 13 and last through Sept. 4.
"We will evaluate after that weekend to see customer response," said Holly Beach, vice president of marketing at the Space Center.
The tram will be free to customers of both attractions and will run on Fridays and Saturdays only. It will make its commute three times per day.
Now, most reasonable people would expect that the museum would "evaluate customer response" BEFORE spending $2.6 million. Or, at the very least, deficit hawk Shelby might ask for at least a little bit of market research. Perhaps this is the new GOP approach to infrastructure:
Build it and see if they come!
Because there were already several obvious ways to measure demand for the service. Stuff that's a heck of a lot cheaper than building a private road. And even easier than renting a 15-passenger van for 4 weekends!
Transportation Options In Place Before Tram
First, it's important for those who aren't familiar with the Huntsville area to realize that there's already public transportation between the gardens and space museum. It's a public tourist loop shuttle bus. It travels hourly between various city attractions and runs from 6:40am until 6:10pm. On the public shuttle, visitors can travel between the USSRC and Botanical Gardens in 6 minutes. Visitors can ride all day for $2.
The tourist bus however, goes only in one direction, so getting to the gardens is easy (6 minutes) but getting back to the USSRC means riding the whole rest of the route – almost an hour's ride. Fortunately, there's a solution to that problem: the USSRC already has full size buses in use. In fact, we witnessed the USSRC bus making tram runs more often than the electric tram itself.
So you have to ask: why did Senator Shelby think a private road and electric tram system was worth $2.6 million in federal transportation earmarks when a system already existed to transport visitors?
Not surprisingly, Shelby's Senate office didn't acknowledge requests for comment. Stay tuned on Thursday: we'll have Shelby's Democratic opponent, Bill Barnes, offering his perspective on Shelby's "trolley folly."