In a recent episode of The Lars Larson Show, John Ley, candidate for Washington House of Representatives (District 18, Position 2), brought to light several alarming issues surrounding the controversial Interstate Bridge Replacement project. This project, which aims to replace the aging Interstate Bridge between Oregon and Washington, has been mired in mismanagement, inflated costs, and poor planning—issues that many media outlets have failed to report.
Ley highlighted that despite the plan to rebuild the bridge, it will remain the same size, doing nothing to address the region’s severe traffic congestion. “It’s a scam,” Ley said, “because traffic will only get worse.” He pointed out that more than half (54%) of the new bridge’s surface will be reserved for transit, bicycles, and pedestrians, leaving less than half for vehicles on this crucial artery that runs along the West Coast.
However, Ley also revealed an even bigger scandal: TriMet, Portland’s public transit agency, is demanding that 19 new light rail vehicles be included in the bridge project, with a price tag that is nearly three times higher than typical costs. TriMet previously paid around $4.5 million per vehicle in other projects, but for this 1.9-mile extension into Vancouver, they are asking for $10 to $15 million per vehicle. Ley called this “a blatant rip-off of taxpayers,” explaining how these costs will unfairly burden Washington and Oregon residents while primarily serving Portland’s needs.
Ley also pointed out the broader lack of oversight in what has become the largest public works project in Portland’s history. State officials have supported TriMet’s inflated demands without questioning the costs, further underscoring the need for transparency and accountability in government-funded infrastructure projects. This project, Ley said, epitomizes the misuse of taxpayer money.
In addition to financial concerns, Ley criticized the unrealistic promises being made about the light rail service. TriMet claims there will be departures from Vancouver every 7.5 minutes, but the system’s infrastructure simply cannot support that frequency. Ley explained that Portland’s Steel Bridge, which is already struggling under heavy traffic, cannot accommodate additional trains, making these promises empty and impractical.
John Ley continues to advocate for responsible government spending, highlighting the need for better oversight in large-scale infrastructure projects. He is committed to ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and that the needs of Washington residents are put first.
Transcript
Lars Larson
The biggest single choke point is the Interstate Bridge, and they plan to rebuild the bridge, except they plan to rebuild it the same size and traffic congestion is going to get worse. Now, most of the legacy media, the TV stations, the daily dead fish wrapper, newspapers, they’re not going to tell you that. But our friend John Ley, who’s a reporter, he’s also a candidate for Washington House of Representatives, District 18, Position 2, and he’s a retired airline pilot.
John Ley
Hey, Lars, thanks for having me on. And yes, I was in mass transit at about 700 miles an hour over the years and, privilege to do so.
Lars Larson
Well, I want to talk about this. There are so many scams tied up in this bridge. But the first I want to remind people, John, brought us the fact that they’re going to build a brand new bridge. To replace a bridge with three lanes each way, north and south, with a bridge that has three lanes each way, north and south, and where 54% of the surface of that bridge where you drive is going to be occupied by transit, bicycles and pedestrians.
And less than half of it is going to be set aside for cars and trucks and people actually commute. So it’s it’s a scam that way. But you identified another scam in which, the transit agency in one state, TriMet in Portland, is trying to fleece the people of southwest Washington with the sale of these light rail vehicles.
And would you mind describing that for the people listening?
John Ley
Fleece is the perfect word, my friend. Greg Johnson and his Interstate Bridge team defend TriMet’s demanding number 1: 19 brand new light rail vehicles as part of this $2 billion, 1.9 mile light rail extension into Vancouver. That’s ten vehicles per mile. That, on the surface is ridiculous. And then TriMet is also asking for triple the price tag of those vehicles.
Earlier this year, TriMet paid $4.5 million each for four new light rail vehicles on their ten mile Better Red extension. They’re now demanding the Interstate Bridge Replacement program pay between $10 and $15 million per vehicle. What an absolute rip off of taxpayers. We asked Greg Johnson’s team if they thought there was anything untoward, or if this raised eyebrows, and they absolutely support it, and that’s an even more ridiculous outrage.
There truly appears to be no accountability in the oversight of the single largest public works program in the history of Portland.
Lars Larson
Now, let me ask you this. So they want to they want to charge triple for these vehicles, at least on paper. So they’re basically going to overcharge southwest Washington for a bunch of light rail vehicles. They want 19. They want the number that they want 19 of them. So that means they’re buying far more than they need. They’re buying a whole bunch of vehicles to use on the rest of TriMet system, and they want to charge the cost to Southwest Washington.
I mean, it’d be like me saying, hey, John, why don’t you go out and buy a new car? You can use it on Sundays. I’ll use it the other six days of the week. That doesn’t exactly work out for you, does it?
John Ley
No, not at all. And it. This pattern has been repeated many times. Number one, if you look back at the history of TriMet buying light rail vehicles, these light rail cars that they currently have in their system, about 25 of them are at the end of their useful life. TriMet should have been planning to replace these for the last couple of decades, knowing they were going to be old and decrepit and no longer useful. Instead,
they’re trying to add these 19 vehicles onto the tax rolls of the, payers of the federal government. Washington and Oregon taxpayers in, a ridiculous amount just in asking for the 19. And then they want to charge the program three times the price tag for each of them. And the thing that makes me the maddest is that when we ask the program team, doesn’t this look ridiculous?
Isn’t there a reasonable oversight of this? And Greg Johnson and his team support it completely. And they said, well, our job is just to support for whatever the government agencies ask for.
Lars Larson
And by the way, John, I’ve talked to other transit, experts like Randall O’Toole, who pointed out the entire system has problems because you can only cram so many trains through downtown Portland and the tracks per hour, and yet they they always promise more than they can deliver. They claim, according to your reporting, you’re going to have a light rail departure from Vancouver every 7.5 minutes.
Except there’s no way for them to get that many trains out of Vancouver. If they can’t go down to either downtown Portland or other locations they would go to and then get back in the same amount of time. Just does the physics of that work at all?
John Ley
No. That’s absolutely perfect. The real bottleneck for TriMet light rail system is the steel bridge over the Willamette River. During rush hour in the morning and in the evening, they have one train that has to slow down to 10 to 15 mph. And they have one train every 90 seconds. There is absolutely no way they can add more trains on anywhere in the system. In order to deliver that 7.5 minute departure
they’d have to cut service elsewhere. Additionally, John Charles and the Cascade Policy Institute for the better part of two decades has documented these false promises constantly made by TriMet to deliver 7.5 minute service. And the best they can do was every 15 minutes. So that’s another lie that is known. It’s been well documented for decades. And yet the IBR team says, oh, that’s not our problem.
Lars Larson
Well by the way John, isn’t it their problem in that if I understand the rules right. When you go to the federal government and say we’re going to build a up to $9 billion bridge, the states have maybe two, two and a half of that, but we want the feds to pay the other $6 or $7 billion at the top end.
The federal government says, then you must tell us how many people you’re going to move. And then they make false promises and say, we’re going to move. And they give them a number, whatever number makes them happy and gets the $7 billion. Knowing full well that they have no way of achieving that number. And then, in theory at least, the federal government can come back and say, you failed to reach the number you promised.
Give us the money back, can’t they?
John Ley
Exactly right. The Federal Transit Administration has rules declaring a default in a contract with any particular transit agency. And again, we have seen TriMet over and over make promises of 7.5 minute departures that they’ve failed on both the yellow and their green Max lines when they were created several decades ago. And so one of my hopes is that when Donald Trump gets elected, he will appoint responsible, business minded people at both the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration, who then will come in and say, you have a history of making false promises.
We’re not going to give you the money you demand.
Lars Larson
And by the way, the Coast Guard has still not said yes. And they’re yes is necessary. It is absolutely required to build. That’s John Ley. John, thanks very much. We’ll get to your phone calls and emails in just a moment. Glad to have you with me. You’re listening to the Lars Larson Show and the Radio Northwest Network.
