Notes From All Over, Part 1 -- February 14, 2020

Light rail, north Texas: one-year anniversary of new light rail from Ft Worth to DFW via Grapevine, TX. Link here.

• bottom line: "hasn't worked"
• since 1996, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit has spent $5 billion on the longest light rail in the US
• in addition, the region has three commuter rail lines:
• Trinity Railway Express from Dallas to Ft Worth
• the A-train from Denton to Carrollton
• TEXRail from Ft Worth to DFW
• in two years, DART will finish the Silver Line from the airport to Plano
• forecast: 5,630 riders per day
• $1.2 billion for the line
• $220,000 per rider
• currently:
• DART averages 1,030 daily light rides per mile of route length
• Houston: 2,651
• Phoenix: 1,800
• costs
• Orange Line to DFW, finished in 2014
• 2,975 riders/weekday
• $1.8 billion
• $600,000 per weekday rider
• commuter rail does even worse
• TEXRail: 1,300 riders per day, one-six the original estimate
• $1.03 billion
• $800,000 per weekeday rider
• cost to ride
• cost to ride, A-train, 1,400 riders per weekday: $32.62; 96% paid from tax subsidies
• TRE, 6,600 riders per weekday; each ride 70% subsidized
• local talk radio noted yesterday that "there are no riders on light rail.
• I wonder if there has been a cutback in number of trains running
• I used to see one or two trains every morning on my way into town
• I haven't seen a train in weeks, seriously -- I don't recall when I last saw a TEXRail commuter train

Samsung, link here:

• "everyone" keeps talking about how Samsung makes inexpensive phones, unlike Apple which "only" makes high-end phones
• in fact, Apple is now bringing out smartphones that are considerably less expensive
• now this: Samsung prices its least expensive new Galaxy smartphone at $1,000 -- even after Apple went lower on iPhone

EPD, link here:

• old news
• I assume I posted this, but I can't remember
• EPD won its appeal against Energy Transfer Partners in the Supreme Court of Texas
• reported back on February 4, 2020
• EPD seems to consistently increase its "dividend" by 0.6% to 1.2% every quarter; it currently pays about 6.5%; down a bit today; at $26 today, has a one-year target of $34.40;

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