Letter: Light rail is the answer

Two recent articles — “Strangled by success” in the Aspen Times Weekly (March 10 to 16) and “Aspen’s parking debacle,” by Tony Vagneur, in The Aspen Times on March 18 (Commentary) — lamenting our parking congestion of autos, trucks and buses absolutely emphasize that we are being “strangled by success.” So there you have it, and what are we going to do about it?

The answer is obvious: Bring light rail into the valley. Fortunately, we did have the foresight to acquire a 42-mile rail corridor, and we came close to implementing a light-rail system in the ’90s but were stopped short by the do-nothing, anti-rail elements within the community.

Unfortunately, Aspen’s success also is its failure, a conundrum we must learn to live with, but we can manage our congestion if we think light rail!

Jim Markalunas

Aspen