Councilor Wheeler Protecting You

Recently Executive Councilor David Wheeler visited Nashua’s Mayor and Board of Alderman. The Nashua delegation was upset that Wheeler wouldn’t agree with them to flush thousands of your dollars down the toilet studying passenger rail service. Nashua seeks, and I believe Manchester is also “on board”, to study whether passenger rail service is viable for that small portion of the state.

What Wheeler knows and what the politicians mentioned above should know is that there is no self- sustaining commuter passenger rail line in the U.S. Why would anyone believe studying this issue will change the outcome?  One must ask, if there were even a possibility of profitability, why haven’t the owners of the rail lines offered the service? The opportunity is so remote that the rail owners aren’t maintaining the tracks beyond the point of serviceability for freight. Attempting to sweeten the perception of viability is a proposal to spend 1.4 million dollars to support a combination rail/bus “park and drive” facility in the city! Really? Insist commuter buses travel into the inner city during rush hours to service commuter passengers. That should add about a half hour to the bus commute driving in and out of Nashua to the interstate.

You ask how is Wheeler protecting you?  If passenger rail service were to be introduced, every single town and city in every county from Coos to the Mass. Border would be forced to subsidize the guaranteed losses of this misadventure. Every community in the state is screaming “foul” on perceived downshifting of costs yet they haven’t acted to prevent this absurd venture. Councilor Wheeler is doing something about it. He should be lauded not lambasted after all it’s your money New Hampshire.

Rep Peter T. Hansen

Hillsborough Dist. 6

Amherst/Milford